d100 More Awful Faerietale Backgrounds

Still playing with these as prep for a game

d10 Awful Faerietale Background Types

1 Orphans underclass

2 Magic Medows
3 Witches
4 Goblins!

5 Sylvan

6 Underland

7 Aquatic

8 Faerie

9 Giants

10 Monstrosities

d100 More Awful Faerietale Backgrounds
Roll again, results are cumulative on your fabulous story
A proper job is your class training or apprenticeship and it ends your results here
Or roll d100 3x times or roll a d4 times 
01 Raised by homeless beggars guild and street gangs when the family died in the plague but you got out of the roll again

02 Caught as a street urchin and kept in a sweatshop, working but you escaped roll again

03 Adopted as a household servant and treated meanly by adopted siblings and family but you escaped roll again

04 Raised by travelling tinkerers who knew many unusual skills and secrets

05 Sold to a cruel master as an apprentice but you escaped roll again

06 Paid foster parent tried to kill you but you escaped roll again

07 Wicked relative stole you as a child to get revenge but you escaped roll again

08 Wicked relative threw you down a well but you escaped roll again

09 Village raided and destroyed by a faction but you escaped roll again

10 Raised by rat folk in the sewers until old enough to join a youth gang before getting a proper job

11 Lived under a tree stump with a badger, a dwarf and a brownie until you got a proper job

12 Lived with kindly halflings in a pleasant rustic village until you got a proper job

13 Shrunk by a witch and lived with intelligent talking mice in a bramble bush. The witch reversed the spell, and you lost your friend's roll again

14 Lived by a pond in the dingly dell with sprites, pixies, gnomes and talking animals until you got a proper job 

15 Lived with gnomes in their mushroom cottage village, but you got too big and had to go roll again

16 Shrunk by a witch and lived in a tree with furry animal friends and birds. The witch reversed the spell, and you lost your friend's roll again

17 Raised by intelligent shapeshifting faerie cats in a magical palace until cats thought you should meet your own kind, and you got a proper job

18 A witch shrunk you, and you lived with hedgehogs, toads and other hedge critters. The witch reversed the spell, and you lost your friend's roll again

19 Raised by shepherds who dealt with various spirits and wee folk, but with your natural talent, they sent you away to get a proper job

20 Raised by a rustic, isolated farmstead where your family dealt with druids and witches for survival, but with your natural talent, they sent you away to get a proper job
21`Raised by a hag and helped her glean trinkets in the city river at low tide until she got you a proper job with her uncanny influence
22 Raised by a coven of witches for some reason they would not say. When you got old enough, they sent you away to get a proper job

23 A witch saved you as an infant, and you lived in her cottage for a time. Roll again

24 Your parents died as adventurers, and a kindly witch saved you from a life of slavery. She even helped you get a proper job and checks up on you in your dreams sometimes

25 Three witch godmothers blessed you as a baby, and when your family was murdered, they carried you away before you could be found. They found supernatural folk to educate you in the way of a proper job

26 A relative you were left in the care of was a witch who showed you some weird stuff and when older, she used her contacts to get you a proper job 

27 A stranger saved you from a fire and gave you to a witch to care for. She kept you in good condition, and you saw weird stuff, some stuff, but eventually you fled, roll again

28 You were living in an orphan poorhouse when the custodians met a witch who offered gold for you. If you willingly went roll again or if you stayed the custodians sold so you could get a proper job

29 You had a witch godmother, and she saved you from the grisly murder of your family and raised you in her lair in a shipwreck inside a monster. Eventually, she took you to get a proper job so you could find those who killed your family

30 You were lost in the woods and raised by witches. They often kept you in a familiar form like a toad at witch gatherings so nobody ate you. Eventually, they took you to meet your destiny. Roll again

31 Goblins got you addicted to faerie fruits and lured you into willingly slavery to faerie folk. But when you became immune to the glamour, you escaped. Roll again 
32 As a child, you had a secret goblin pal who sometimes helped you but eventually you were sent away to get a proper job

33 Goblins carried you away as a child, and dwarves rescued you, raising you in a stern underground citadel until you were able to return to the surface and get a proper job

34 Goblins saved you as a lost child in the woods and took you to the hollow tree house they lived in but eventually they sent you on your way to find yourself. Roll again

35 A goblin came from under your childhood bed and would take you on adventures in dreamland buy you probably just imagined it all. Since then you grew up and got a proper job  

36 A bugbear used to torment you as a child and nobody believed you. Now you've grown with a proper job but have heard bugbears are real. How could you know what they look so well if you made it up?

37 Goblins were tormenting you as a child to accept their forbidden fruit and a priest came and smashed their brains out with a mace. The kindly cleric made sure local church helped you in life and get a proper job

38 Goblins took you to see their secret market and showed you fabulous goods but you went home empty-handed. Nobody believed you. Roll again

39 Lived in a stilt village of swamp goblins, frog folk and bug folk but eventually you left to see the wider world outside the swamp. Roll again

40 Raised with a family of goblins living in a dwarf ruin until you grew too big to fit in the family bolthole and had to leave. Roll again

41 Raised by satyrs, centaurs, nymphs and dryads. Frolicking in a delightful wilderness until you grew too old roll again

42 Raised by tree folk and tree spirits until they felt you should live with your own kind and sent you with amber beads to pay to learn a trade and get a proper job. 
43 So, they say your absent parent was a nature spirit or supernatural being, roll again
44 Some of your ancestors were petrified, and you heard where their statues are now. Roll again

45 Some of your ancestors were turned into trees, and you heard where they are now. Roll again

46 Your family had their own shrine and claimed descent from a divine or spirit being. Some of your standout features are attributed to this being. Roll again

47 You met talking snakes guarding a sacred tree, but could not find them again. Roll gain

48 You were lost in the wasteland, and wild people found you and cared for you for a while. Eventually, they brought you to civilisation, where you got a proper job

49 You were educated by a centaur, which helped you get a proper job

50 Faerie brought you the tools of your trade so you could get a proper job

51 As a child, a gnome lured you in a hole with a toy and shrinking candy. Once you were trapped in a hole had to serve him for years and rarely even got candy or magic toys to play with. Eventually, a faerie helped you escape and roll again
52 Trolls carried you into the deep and sold you to dark elves. Took years to escape and reach the surface, but the skills learned helped you get a proper job

53 Taken by dark elves as a slave and saw their city in the underland among the roots of the world tree, but you escaped. Roll again

54 Taken by gnomes into the great deep to toil in an underground sweatshop, and saw their automatons and machines. Abandoned when sick, you escaped through a garbage cavern to  the surface with the skills to get a proper job

55 Taken by dark pixies into a giant mushroom cavern and used as a beast of burden until you escaped. Roll again

56 Lured by enchanted spores into a cave, you served mushroom folk for years until a benevolent gnome cured the fungal infection, altering your mind to free you. You got to the surface and were welcomed. Locals helped you until you got a proper job

57 Adventurers hired you as a torchbearer and lost you in a pit. Dark humanoids carried you to the deep and made you toil in an underground sweatshop. You grew stronger and killed several to get to the surface. You spent some time adjusting to the surface, and commoners helped you get a better job

58 Taken by dungeon monsters and lived with humanoids until they considered you local, and you just walked out. The original monsters that kidnapped you died in dungeon incidents over the years, so recent arrivals treated you better. With your dungeon skills, you got a proper job

59 Snatched by a tribe of cannibalistic cave folk and taken with them as rations on their migrations deep in the earth. Eventually, after many ordeals, they let you loose and you reached the surface in a different kingdom and got a proper job

60 Reptilians from the deep carried you through flooded caverns to the remnants of an underground citadel of reptilians. After years, you saved some eggs and were set free and returned to the surface to get a proper job

61 Standed on a rocky island, cared for like a pet by mermaids. When you saw them eat sailors, you ran away, roll again

62 Pressganged onto a ship's cruel service, but mermaids lured you into their undersea faerieland, where you worked serving fancy fish, nymphs, sea elves, and dolphins until you escaped, roll again

63 Taken by undead pirates at sea and served them for several years before you swam for land and got a proper job

64 Adopted by selkies and found wandering a beach. The faerie were seal folk who carried you to many hidden underwater wonders, but returned you to land when you were old enough. Roll again

65 Thrown into the sea but saved by underwater faeries who let you live in their sea palace before returning you to the surface, roll again

66 Found by seawolf pirates who were awful sea raider lycanthropes. You managed to escape and settle down with a proper job

67 Washed up on a beach and lived several years in a giant sandcastle with a nymph and her pet giant crabs, but you got washed away in a storm and arrived in civilisation roll again

68 Kept by a sea hag in her island lair to fatten up, but you were freed by a nixie, roll again

69 Travelled at see and saw strange foreign lands and sea monsters before returning home and getting a proper job

70 Lived with peaceful islander natives, but a ship came and rescued you by force against your will back to civilisation, roll again

71 Trapped in hazy dreamlike faerieland for what seemed like years, but when you escaped, decades had passed, so you got a proper job

72 Faerie kept you as a pet for a time until they grew bored with you. They released you, roll again

73 Found isolated nobles in a castle who were really faerie folk. You lived among them for a while, but you escaped when their intrigues became perilous, roll again

74 You were kidnapped by a faerie and escaped. When you returned, a changeling had replaced you, and you drove it away. After this, you settled down and got a proper job

75 Faerie creatures constantly played tricks on you for some reason so you moved far away to escape them. Roll again

76 You dreamed of an attractive youth for months and wasted away until a priest saved you from the influence of a faerie being. You still think about them. Roll again 

77 As a child you spoke to faeries but as you got older you could no longer see them. You gave up these youthful dreams and got a proper job

78 As a child, a beautiful woman would sing you to sleep but as you got older, you realised nobody else saw her. Sometimes you see her in your dreams. Roll again

79 Faerie appeared when you were born for some reason, roll again

80 As a child, a faerie branded you for some reason with a strange mark, roll again

81 On a foggy night, you saw giant figures walking in the mist
82 Giantchildren found you and kept you as a pet in a dollhouse or cage. Eventually escaped and roll again

83 Lived with a cyclops shepherd who found you lost for years. Eventually, they helped you contact travellers and find your way back to the kingdom and you got a proper job
84 Ogres caught you and put you in their larder for months, but you burrowed and squeezed out, once home you looked for a proper job

85 You were lost in the mist and taken by giants who took you to their wondrous cloud castle. You saw many wonders, but eventually they returned you and you got a propper job

86 Orcs sold you to fire giants as a slave. It was a hellish life of toil and sweat. You escaped when adventurers attacked roll again

87 You were lost in the mountains and met peaceful grey stone giants who helped you get back on the road

88 You saw hill giants tear a frontier stockade aprt and eat the inhabitants. You were determined to get a proper job after that

89 You saw a titanic humanoid waist deep in the sea. It swatted your ship aside and you survived. You were determined to get a proper job after that 

90 Once while travelling you felt the earth quake and saw the mountain was a collosal giant
91 You saw a dragon burn a village and eat everyone. After that you dedicated yourself to getting a propper job

92 You were out late and heard horrible noises. You saw witches and evil goats worship a devil. You kept quiet and got a proper job

93 You were content in a new home when a chaos war band of berserker beastmen and mutants attacked your community. Their was a siege and a loss of life and you killed a creature to save your life. Since then, you have worked hard to get a proper job

94 Your home was assailed by undead night after nioght until a priest saved you by driving the wicked away. Feeling lucky to live unlike others you knuckled down to get a proper job

95 As a teen, you met a seductive youth and it turned out they were a succubus or incubus (you pick or maybe both). At some point, you became suspicious and called it off. Yo stayed in a holy place for a time to shake off its link to you. The priest said you were lucky so you got a propper job

96 A huge talking black cat offered you wishes or free tuition at the black college of magic through a hellgate. Instead, you got a proper job

97 You helped a phantom find peace in a haunted place and it rewarded you with enough money it had hidden so you could travel and get a proper job

98 You dreamed of a tentacled frog god in a well, calling to you for aid and offering you power. You got a bunch of talismans and holy symbols and it went away. After this you wanted a proper job

99 You encountered a wounded magical beast (d4 1=griffon 2=owlbear 3=pegasi 4=unicorn) and for a time were friends. It's been a long time but you think of them still and have lock of their hair. Roll again.  

100 A mysterious, wealthy stranger took an interest in you for a while. Later, you found out they were monsters! (d4 1=vampire 2=lamia 3=dragon 4=rakasha). You escaped and got to roll again

Obviouusly be creative mashing these up and changing order is fine
GM might inset a common step for all iin the party

I welcome your results below in the comments

Too many superhero games?

Art by Michal Dutkiewicz who i worked for since 80s
Ive been playing super hero rpgs since 1983

Prompted by a flood of AI superhero games whos creators seem to be unaware of genre history. This was a FB post on a group flooded with new ai hero game slop. 

One campaign lasted 20 years - started as Champions and Superworld then mostly TSR marvel (non-Marvel universe) some of my players ive had since 91. One of them is running the descendant of that campaign now.

Im finding many creators are unaware of the history of this genre. Id say the most successful ones had professional art and design. Its a genre based on art. Your art sets the tone. If it is not like comic realism and you use cute or humorous art its a risk of not having tone for many styles of games. If you dream of writing a comic its cheaper to make an RPG, possibly. The flood of new supe games since AI is amazing and verges on slop. You are limiting yourself from comic cons and the indy game world if you go the AI path and risk art fans hating you. Some games lasted decades, maybe consider what they did right and wrong. Put your artist credits up front.

a brief list of some of the games ive seen/played/owned/admired

I can't even remember all the games I've played in this genre.

Problems in games
-power balance, my street level guy seems pissweek vs the battlesuit guy shooting energy bolts
-point games often mean I can't take a villain's gadget or adopt a sidekick or base found in game without paying. Some games let you owe ponts but its pretty unrealistic to say no
-tone of your setting should be upfront. If you dont want killer heroes, you need to put it up front. One game had all kinds of questions for a campaign about the legality of powers and social attitude to supes then broke when half party wanted to act like Punisher, and others wanted to be benevolent. Gold silver iron age of comics can be a tone guide but the modern era explores the whole history of the genre and plays with it. Some systems penalise killers. Is your game comic code approved or a more nasty weird adult line like Invisibles
-money can break some systems. Money can be a power. Angel in defenders was the weakest in comic but he owned the base and a jet. Does money break your point system? If i can fill a van with fertiliser and throw hand grenades or use legal weapons, it can break some games. Powers need to be better than weapons and conventional tech or account for it. Money breaks quite a few games. If I cant keep stuff I find or in USA just buy a machinegun or rotary cannon on a jeep why not? Prefer games where superman and batman can work together.
-some games at least, are trying innovative mechanics to roleplay or session zero creates the setting with player input

Some of the games I remember:
Villains and vigilantes - writer/artist Jeff is a leading anti ai advocate in game scene. Great villain sourcebooks and adventures with tokens.

Champions - i got for 5 bux first ed and was the most popular super hero game a few years in my clubs - great campagn sources and villains and adventures. Random heroes. point based and some nice art. Pulp version too. Did a car wars crossover also.

Super Squadron - an Australian V&V clone, people played a bit. Random heroes

Superworld - BRP chaosium game mixing BRP and points - you can use cthulhu content easily and point system was jacked into Stormbringer demons (i cant think of a less "chaos" approach to demon making). Was part of the Worlds of Wonder RPG earlier. George R Martin played this then did Wildcards series. Good for Zenith

Superhero 2044 - sf heros, pretty basic

GURPS - has lots of superhero books and you can use other gurps content - Point based and a bit like Champions. Had a wildcards book and green ronin later did a full wildcards game (was a hollywood development. I liked first 4 wildcards books but as usual martin goes into rape and depravity for increasingly no point

TSR Marvel Superheroes - basic and advanced versions. Very successful and its death seems like bad management - Still my fave system. PPl claimed had no character gen but even basic version had multiple systems to generate characters and I make new ones every campagn. One table and people get system in minutes and very dynamic. They tried table aproach on other games. You could make a colour based table for BRP really. Hulk and daredevil could be on same team fine.

Heroes Unlimited - Palladium system so you can use any paladium stuff. I loved the cover by Steranko. Intro adventure pretty dark. Also they did ninja turtles rpg that was huge

TSR Top Secret/SI Freelancers a proto cyberpunk gritty super agents setting with two books with lots of great ideas by Jeff Grubb who did Marvel. Also Agent13 sourcebook for pulp heroes that is amazing

DC heroes - had an interesting system to handle power ranges of that universe and lots of sourcebooks. I think was retooled as a batman rpg later?

Aberrant - white wolf, gritty setting but i dont vibe with white wolf stuff but lots of sourcebooks and ideas

Mutants & Masterminds - d20 based with a great setting fusing marvel and dc. lots of great sub genre books like teen heroes, super agents and more

Silver Age Sentinels - a good campagn and interesting characters to steal

ICONS - i dont see why TSR Marvel the simplest game so far on list needed simplification. One other clone boasted it didnt use the universal table which was the whole point of the game.

Masks - powered by the apocalypse which I dont really dig

Golden Heroes - GW game has had a revision since. Origional had profesional art

Into the 90s more super games appeared and now rare and forgotten. Quite a few forgotten anime hero games too. I liked Sailor Moon game

Underground - was probably a mix genre game but a bit like Martial Law and a gritty setting

Godlike - WW2 and interesting universe, not a 4 colur style game and gritty

The Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game - had some interesting ideas but I found a bit flawed - only a few supplements. Diceless and pointbuy

Algernon Files - was a M&M based then own system. Has lots of interesting characters to steal

Neccecary Evil - heroes all killed and villains unite to fight aliens - great setting but i find savage worlds had good ideas and a system i never felt had risk or consequence

Capes A GM-less system

Adventures into Darkness - takes public domain heroes and adds to the cthulhu mythos - lots of fun ideas

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying - died due to license costs and why im suspicious of all licensed IP games - ive seen to many die not from fan interest but legal costs

also see ageofravensgames blog history of superhero games 15 part exploration

also rpgpub bigass-list-of-superhero-rpgs

have a look on drivethrough too

Cthulhu RPGs have a similar problem too - three KS recently. A game from a few years ago boasted they were only non racist HPL derived game, now dead, despite denouncing the writer's racism as a core sales point. Not wrong to claim HPL a broke powerless loser was racist but they flooded game media with PR based on this and milked the predictable outrage. Actually, I think many HPL fans are far worse than him. 

Heroes of Faerun Review - Would I run It?

So I avoided this book and setting most of the last 34 years. I like the first box set with vast undocumented regions. I like the Forgotten Realms accessories detailing the world bit by bit, late 1st and early 2nd edtition. I think Dragon 54 Ed discussed how he cobbled gods from Deities and Demigods including Elric and Fritz Lieber Mythos and were retconned for IP reasons. A few of these gods are recognisable from mythology still. There was a 2nd ed hardback wich I disliked but had some spells and magic and lots of city maps that were mediocre. I liked the Old Empires bit best. Their was a dragon magazine detailing part of the sword coast I quite liked as a campagn area. Id ignored setting mostly since calling it the Forgetable Realms. I liked the vibe of Eds articles and the world bit over time it became over detailed. I ran Theros as my first D&D5 game because I didnt want FR fan players bringing up decades of lore which I dunna wanna know. Actually a player tried but thankfully I can say nope Theros is not connected to the mainstream D&D universe. I guess it is why we never got any crossovers in official plane-hopping adventures. The idea the multiverse is the default setting and we can hop about milking nostalgia with pop in planes. Im not a fan of this but at high level it seems more reasonable. 

Heroes of Faerun was half price on Amazon, so I nabbed it. And I will say I was surprised and liked it. I guess the player features were part of my interest. It has a few things I did not expect and liked.

So the inside cover has simple maps showing regions. There is a big fold-out map with amazing detail and a calendar on the back. My only comment on these is I'd like to see the deserts and icy wastes coloured appropriately.  

It has lots of nice art complementing the core books. I ama bit over the over rendered stuff possibly from AI over use but this was nice and lots of characters we have seen in other illustrations in other books. 

So it starts with character options and notes on species in the setting which positions how common they are and where they come from. There are 8 subclasses. I liked the knowledge domain and still think they need a whole book of cleric subclasses and deities because it would also be world building in a way other classes are not.

Banneret fighter is interesting and nice but maybe leaning towards paladin. Lots of teamwork benefits.

Noble Genies Paladin even though I'm not a fan of playable genies everywhere. I'd rather they were just elemental kin or something. As an Elemental Paladin, I like this subclass.

The Winter Walker Ranger is nice and I might play one. You could probably do other elemental rangers. 

Scion of the Three is a dream rogue for eliminating weakened foes on the battlefield. It will stack with some of the feats in this book. 

Spellfire sorcery is nice and has some spells sorcerers dont normally have so could be another 2nd tier healer which is nice. 

Bladesinger wizard is nice and likewise will work with some of the new feats. I normally would do a spell using fighter or theif but this is tempting.

Backgrounds are using new feats and old ones and let you make characters based on various factions and regions of the setting. They are built in settings and probably more usable for other settings than the recent Eberon book options.

Feats are interesting and numerous. Some are a bit silly or you need to have an origin feat then a general feat and the benefits not always great. I do find feats that should be thematic for a build are not, because you dont need more than one way of speaking to animals and some other overlaps. Because stacking some species-class-feat combos cant be done or dont work, making them rare even if flavoursome in a setting. Lots of feats built for teamwork or have several benefits and one is for teamwork. I did like the co-op features of Draw Steel.

Lots of these feats serve specific factions but you could steal for other campaigns. There are lots of options here to expand your choices. Mythal Touched seems like it would be taken by players who like chaos and could make a whole party die. I could see a wacky NPC have this and you have to nursemaid them while they are a hazard. Also, a clockwork amulet with this and some kind of flight you might make the reverse gravity effect happen deliberately. There are some good rogue feats. SOme ok epic boons but ive never had these come up in a game. Sometimes I think they could do a single book with levels only up to 10th and it would be fine for most players. In older eds high level choices were more for the DM to make enemies than players. But now NPCs just dont work like players and sometimes their levels are unclear if any.

The guide section has calender, timeline, curerency and other notes. Id set my game in 13 57 like the older books so i would not have to deal with all the mega events of novels and other sources id rather not deal with. Languages list is nice too. The main regions are detailed niceley. The gods section is Ok but I was hoping for the Old Empires gods to be included. It has lots of choices. 

Aurora's Whole Realms Catalogue has some equipment, some which is cheap and dangerous. I do want an axebeak pulled wagon now. Well-illustrated section. 

Magic section has circle magic I dont want to use or I feel needs more requirements to use and more for NPCs. Some nice spells. One necromatic spell which they relly ought to create more. 

The factions section I did not expect. There are some 3rd party faction books out currently so its a bit of a fad. This has lots of major factions, with a chart to see who hates whom. Each is well-detailed. I like the renown rewards, giving you benefits depending on your standing in the org, trinkets you get with membership, and some have unique faction extra tables of stuff. They also have bastion features I really like. I'd like a book to have expanded bastions with more of these and normal constructions and business players could operate. A few of these wont defend your bastion, which many cultures consider part of hospitality. My 5 players gained all the DMG bastion options available between them, so more are needed and more to suit classes. It touches on some other orgs also with less detail.

Overall, it was better than I expected. I would be more prepared to play it.

Would I use the setting?
Id be more willing to DM the setting with this book, especially for short games in clubs, but I'm unlikely to run a personal long term campaign there. Pretty much the same for Greyhawk but I think Temple of Elemental evil belongs there better than FR. To be fair the only official settings i have used was the Known World which I quit when flying boats came in and it was rebranded as Mystara. Theros is the only setting since. I guess we kinda used Greyhawk by default early 80s, but nothing about the setting really came up it could have been any generic europe. It was pretty bare bones then.

Id consider using the Old Empires and the blank lands under them. Id set between 1100-1357. I dislike the soft rebook mega events, which the book does not explain. Is it really a player's book? I can see why they market it as such as players buy more stuff and outnumber DMs. Id say the detail of the regions is overly done for players, and maybe the faction rules. Id worry players may know more about the setting than the DM, especially if they read a hundred or so novels. Thus, my preferred era predates a bunch of stuff i dont want to touch and regions of Choice away from areas in novels. In early 90s TSR did lots of History inpired books so did RQ, Rolemaster and as I got more into history it led me away from most fantasy RPGs just reskinning history. FR10 Old Empires was great and had lots of nice spells they tried to restrict from normal campaigns.

Mulhorand an Egyptian-inspired region, but I'd say its population is low for its achievements, and Egypt not really into slaves like biblical movies suggest. Shame Set, Horus and Isis not in core FR setting more. Making them tech leaders and pioneers of steam and steel a bit odd too. Possibly Mystara version of fantasy Egypt is better done but leans into Psuedo History with pyramid power plants. Gilgeam of Unther I guess is Gilgamesh. It seems comicly opressive and burned out but I like the rebels like Tiamat. Names just taken from random Iraq over 3000 years. Possibly Ive read too much history to enjoy this. Chessenta a psuedo Rome but no roman gods. 

Even with promising blank lands underneath I think Id rather do something else for an ancient near-east or Mediterranean world. Most of the Egyptian RPG gear I've seen recently still draws on untrue pop history, wildly untrue biblical history, pseudoscience or New Age Khemetism. The Iron Crown Rolemaster Egypt book is wildly inspirational and fantastic yet more rooted in the sources. And it has lots of maps.  

Faerie Tale Edgelord Background Table Fables

My players in my weekly club game 
Burned a freakshow down and freed mutants in Greywater
Then killed village leaders performing a cult ritual, leaving Burning Hill leaderless

Quick Edgelord Background Tables 

Wilderness
Agricultural
Underclass

Guild folk
Noble
Weird Stuff

d12 Wilderness
For barbarians, wild folk, beastfolk & tribal folk
1 Raised by wild folk tribals in the forest, rarely even wearing clothes

2 Raised by a hidden druidic cult, who were burned as witches by a newer faith

3 Used as a hostage exchange, and like your new family better

4 Family killed by a bloodthirsty tribe

5 Evil siblings left you for dead and think you are no more 

6 Family killed by a famous monster

7 Found as a child by a household of small sylvan forest folk

8 Found as a child and raised by animals, lycanthropes, beast spirit folk or beat folk

9 Elves kidnapped you as a child centuries ago, and you escaped

10 Raised by a witch in the woods and escaped

11 Raised in the woods by dryads or nymphs underwater until you were a teen

12 Clan was corrupted by a dark ruler and turned your family to monsters

d12 Rural
For farmers and settlers on the frontier
1 Family murdered by bandits
2 Family carried away by slavers

3 Noble or knight murdered your family to grab their land

5 Humanoids from the frontier burned your village down and enslaved survivors

6 Family imprisoned and land stolen by corrupt judge and bailiff thugs

7 Family eaten by a clan of cannibals living in a cave

8 Village had a secret cult, and you had to flee to escape, as the family included

9 Village had your family rounded up and burned as witches or heretics

10 Plague killed your whole village while you were away tending goats

11 Elves aided your parents and demanded you as a servant now grown, so you ran

12 A witch claimed you at birth, you're on the run as they came looking for you recently 

d12 Underclass
For orphans, the poor, the criminal or client classes
1 Raised by a gang of sewer orphans until old enough to join a gang

2 Orphaned by plague and caught by a child catcher, sold to an orphanage

3 Parents died in a poorhouse and escaped a life of servitude

4 Lost your family of immigrants in a city slum, had to survive on your own

5 Raised by a sibling but they ended up in a gang and told you to flee

6 Mother died in prison and you were born inside, released when an adult

7 Adventurer parents left you with a paid foster parent and disappeared 

8 Left in a basket at a religious order with strict monks, nuns, priests or templars

9 Gang adopted you to run their errands and serve gangsters' drinks

10 Found by beggar guild, who taught you to profit from your wretched orphan poverty

11 Local homeless and street folk looked out for you and protected you from trouble

12 Raised by were rats, gnomes or other wee folk the in sewers

d12 Guild Folk
Traders, merchants, craftsmen and skilled classes of urban centres
1 Family servant tormented you and framed you for a crime so you fled
2 Taken as an apprentice by a cruel master who starved and beat you

3 Adopted as an apprentice by a kindly crafter who was murdered by a serial killer
4 Ran away to the city and was adopted by kindly shopkeepers who later died in a fire

5 Family all died of plague and the property was grabbed, leaving you in a workhouse

6 Family sold you into service in a posh household, but had to flee cruelty

7 Family business destroyed by rivals and the family killed, you had to flee

8 Daddy was a violent drunk who sold family to pay debts and fines

9 Family died, and evil relatives dumped you in another city

10 Father died, and the guild claimed he owed all his property, leaving you paupers

11 Talented student of a kind teacher, but your family killed them

12 Your real parent was murdered by your current legal one to grab property

d12 Noble
Knights, nobles, officials of the crown and church
1 Sent to school by the church, who knows who your parents are
2 Family killed over property, and only you survived to run

3 Family declared traitors and most hunted and executed by the crown

4 Your real father died, and some sibling you never met wants you dead 
5 You had an arranged marriage with some ugly old noble to get your family rich

6 Find your true bloodline! d4 1=robber knight 2=deposed ruler 3=enemy kingdom 4=fairy 
7 Family fortune has declined since a relic magic item was lost, if only it could be found 

8 Parent has sent siblings on a year-long quest to see who should be the rightful heir, with some fetchquest d6 1=best marriage, 2=best treasure, 3=best battle trophy, 4=greatest act of charity, 5=greatest act of glory for family, 6=best horse

9 Faerie came to claim you when you became an adult, and they left displeased. Your family say to run

10 Raised as a companion for a noble heir and found out the family kidnapped you and killed your family

11 Raised in a tower or dungeon, hidden from the world because their parents were unwed

12 A witch made a prophecy about you and your family sent you away as bad luck

d12 Exotic Past
For people who want to be outsiders
1 Raised by a secret, forbidden cult, but escaped

2 Kidnapped by pirates as a child and travelled with them to the islands, they were caught and executed, and you were sent home

3 Raised by wandering itinerant crafters and labourers

4 Worked as a mine hand since childhood, carrying goods and leading blind pit ponies

5 Raised by jolly halflings in a comfortable burrow and well fed, nobody has sympathy for you. Carers complained you were not chubby, too tall and didn't eat enough

6 Stranded on an island as a youth and the other survivors were eaten by mermaids and cannibal pirates

7 Raised by wild forest folk using stone skin and wearing woven vegetation and hides 

8 Raised by a wandering martial artist who might have been a spirit folk in disguise

9 Grew up a prisoner or a hostage with restrictions

11 Raised a slave in wasteland by d4 1=barbarians 2=orcs 3=beast folk 4=gnomes 

12 Raised by witches as part of some epic fate warping spell requiring orphans

d12 Unnatural Past
For people committed to being weirdos
1 Kidnapped by fish folk and toiled in their undersea palaces

2 Grown in a vat by a wizard as an experiment, once the study was completed, you were dumped

3 Witch turned you into a beast several years and you lived as her pet

4 Raised by stern dwarfs in a deep underground citadel, but hard to fit in

5 Raised as a slave by gnomes or goblins, toiling under the earth till your escape

6 Kidnapped as a child and raised as a slave for faerie folk until they thought you looked too old and too hairy and dumped you. Goblins treated you better than the masters

7 Kidnapped by gnomes and goblins and lived inside the roots and branches of the world tree. Got to see the secret paths inside the trunk, the best ways to climb and houses to visit in the bark and even how they waited for magical clouds to touch the branches to other mythical worlds

8 Lived on a fabulous island utopia of spirit folk, and the island has vanished as you fled

9 Raised as a pet by giants, but escaped when some were cruel and threatened to eat you. Storms remind you of their fury

10 Family trapped on the estate by a faerie curse for generations, but you escaped

11 Cared for by a sylvan being d6 1=dryads 2=nymphs 3=satyrs 4=centaurs 5=beast spirit 6=flora spirit  

12 Family serves a dragon for generations, and you escaped

Reviews, AI comment spam and more

New Album on Bandcamp Up

I found some comments under spam that were mostly just on word comments.
Lots of them were mine. Apologies if your comments were gobbled in this.

Also AI targeted comments a thing now:

i got this:
Love the Eldritch Monolith encounter design. The way you structured the six rooms with escalating threat really captures the feeling of exploring something ancient and dangerous. For anyone running a tabletop game in a shared space like a game store or community hall, ventilation can be an afterthought but makes a big difference for player comfort during long sessions. Goes on to sell me air ducts.

I'd like this comment if not just to sell to me.
It's like some shit charity collector complimenting your dog, sports team or shirt.

Saw two ai pics made of me, which were kinda funny. The first had animae imagery with figurines and detailed, readable text on screen in trhe pic. The second had lots of gothic writing posters and medieval woodcuts on screen. Funny and weird, but mostly a fantasy. Im finding that asking AI browsers stuff it leaves out non USA items from lists, ignoring other older achievements and sometimes it takes 3 tries with increasing qualifiers to get answers I want. Lucky i did philosophy for 5 years. AI enhances grammar spelling had become more intrusive with pop ups and recommended blandness because it doesn't know old words (like Gygax & HPL loved). Actually, school teachers didn't either, mostly and like AI tried correcting the spelling of old words or even new science terms. Often it fails with singular or plural or common modifiers of words. English has lots of alt suffix use which AI seems to mess up. Mind you, I'm a shit editor, especially of my own work. When I was in press up to a hundred people might proof my work and still typos slipped through.

Update - i argued with an ai and took 11 times to get it to admit it was wrong about a statement said by a politician that id seen 2 interviews where they said it.

AI spends lots of energy ego-stroking you to make you dependent.
See Richard Dawkins recent embarrassing documentation of him being grifted. 

People are cranking out superhero rpgs with AI art. Id say mostly fans of Indy RPG art and Comics will not want your AI images or products. There are too many superhero RPGs that are deeply flawed and try and force narrative with rules.Too manydont say why they are different or why you should try them. Many dont really say what genre or style of superheroes they claim to replicate. Superheroes are a big genre that can include and overlap with other genres, but they are still wildly different.

But I'm basically playing the same 3 games as I was 1984, so what would I know.

Dolmen Wood
To be fair im still deep reading but finally winning the campaign book. A great detailed, pre-prepped hexcrawl sandbox fairytale campaign and games. The game is partly stripped down BX or OSR. Streamlined in some ways but inbuilt with lots of setting lore and really part of their world. If your going to do a BX clone a world is a great way of making it different. Mostly Id say Im envious and want to use it and Midderlands more than any other setting in decades. You could play with OSE and the Domenwood booklet for OSE and you would get druids and illusionists. I think Dolmenwood should be celebrated for where it diverges from BX D&D like the faeiri magic and species abilities. The Player's book is lovely and has details you could lift for other games. Design is fantastic and less mechanical formula-like than some OSE books seem. 

The Cloth map I got is lovely, and like flag fabric and is nice to touch. Better than the silkscreened on linen ones I have from other KS packs. The Map book is great and answers lots of questions quickly. The town maps are interesting. I would have Glynn Seal-style GM maps, or as an addition. The 70s children's book looking maps have a printerly look, but are nice and functional. Just not as exact as most urban maps.

The Campagn book has lots of faction lore, history and a page per hex with local monsters, treasure, risks of being lost, what herbs you can find and all the local leyline effects. You could wander here for years, and later you go to a specific place to get certain herbs or a layline or a faerieworld. I love the Drune and like the witches and other factions. I love the Breggles and the various half Breggles (dont ask too much). 

Lots of great megadungeons have been done, and a new generation of bigger ones is up for a challenge. This is one of the best hex crawls. Every hex has love and is not generated at random on a spreadsheet like the worst big hex crawls. I dont think it would work the same with say D&D5, which is harder to make camping and gathering food to be exciting, while this has procedures you could use in a more horror resourcism game like older D&D. 

Dragon Delves for 5th ed
I got this half price, and i had not planned to. I would swap mine for a brighter shop cover, possibly. It seems in part a sampler of possible art styles which I like (I like the new Eberon book art too - i got just for class, but think it's a good book to bridge new work to old. I hope Ravenloft doesn't reinvent the wheel again like this book avoids). I appreciate this and AI art has made me cringe at any overly rendered art now. Its saturated and cliched and AI has accelerated this asthetics death. The same way I cringe at flags and crusader uniforms and even certain exact party colours in public (see UK/AU politics). So all these adventures could be slapped together but mostly just look up your player's level and what is on offer here and play without fuss. I ran at a club one with 1st time playing kids who learned that Player vs Player can have bad outcomes. The other I slipped in and the twist is telegraphed in a way it does not gobble up time. Its a dungeon with visual clues. We didn't do this all in one go but they solved most of the mystery. They spent another session cleaning up and there are tables to generate trapped secret treasure rooms, which was fun, and they met some new monsters. The adventures have a good thread of whimsy for more child-like or witchlight style play but plenty of violence. Some dark cutsey stuff, and or playable as horror. Stakes are local and managable and easy to drop in your game. Finish most in 1 3-hour session or perhaps 2, with perhaps an extra encounter. Im wondering if this forbodes the return of adventure modules will end up looking wildly different and possibly compiled in books later.

Pendragon - Starter Set & Core Rulebook
Upfront, everyone should try this game if you like roleplaying and some medieval literary bent. Or you just like King Arthur stuff and roleplaying. I've had it since the 80s and not played as much as I liked. I'm amazed with emergance of certain game design theorists that Pendragon did not come up. It's a wildly different RPG ride to D&D, but its ideas will make your D&D campaign better. I have a big pile of 80s and 90s books, and was pleased to see the game return. There are ideas in this you could use in Dolmenwood also. It is not grim or dark in the cliched way. You play poor beginner knights out to prove yourself. You might go to a tournament, meet someone attractive to flirt with and fight some bandits and recover from a wound. That's a year. Over winter, trapped in your castle you get to recover and train and other tasks. You partner and children and horses need rolls to not die over winter. Or maybe you have a child and your wife dies. You need to get married and have heirs because over a 75-game year campaign, that's how your character replaces themself. Your character might not do what you want which is part of the roleplaying fun. You roll competing traits like chastity vs slutty to see if you resist your hosts wife's advances and cause a war. Its replicating a specific style of Arthurian Mythos you dont really see in any film or tv or most modern books. It is a historic fantasy not a history game. It looks and feels like people thought they did hundreds of years later in medieval romance. Many of the principles of a yearly campaign can be used in other games. RQ2&3 had players taking years off to work and train also. it is passively built into older BRP games. Maybe the minimal story gamers will discover the coin-flipping Prince Valiant game for an even lighter RPG.

Mechanics are a simplified BRP using d20 mostly and d6. It has integrated battle rules. This current edition is lovely and feels very nice to the touch. It's much improved. Later books may expand nationality options in detail, like the older version. They do spend a while setting the tone. Lots of nice spot art and no chainmail bikinis. This edition is more encouraging of being a female knight. There were in past options to play a noblewoman. I'm a big fan of Christine DePizan, who details many famous women heroes women might quote in game. You are not drowned, choice and roleplaying and a few choices give you flavour, not combat superpowers. Your deeds in play matter more.

The starter box might be good for a tryout for a few games. It also has character cards for npcs, a solo adventure, some procedure sheets and the most beautiful gatefold character sheets I've ever seen. I'm gonna steal this format of a character sheet, OMG I love it. There is enough here for months of play. I still need to get three other products to really run it, but even if I don't play this year, it will benefit my next D&D game. 

Update - i played the solo intro adventure, which is well done. I could probably play a few more times. I chose skills that were never used.  

Land of Eem
So this I did not expect to get but got a few items locally with good post and still need to get the Mucklands campaign book. It is kinda Muppets + D&D + Adventure Time. You could play with kids. It has violence, but combat isn't for damaging or killing. It has interesting species to play and classes. It has shitloads of tables it runs off and in many ways is like my own design philosophy. It is pretty and well laid out with nice paper. I will point out it has incredible building and herbalism rules, a bit like Dolmenwood but more expansive. The DM screen seemed nice, but I don't normally use them. If fine with players spying on my HP tallys. I look forward to the final setting book; I suspect I would steal from it.

Update - the core book has not got much fluff or lore - its not a great read. Pages of tables which i would do in a book and laid out very well to find stuff so design high. I found all Dolmenwood stuff was a better read.

OSE
I finally have two hardbacks and two box sets of individual books so very handy if i run it. Probably will be my default con and online game. I have had more experience with online gaming mostly with a simple sketch program and discord. So I might try to DM online. The new demonology book looks good.

I have signed up for Dungeon Degenerates RPG KS
I feel it might mash up with Warlock! RPG tone 

6-Room Dungeon 11: Eldritch Monolith

Please comment below for future posts

Hell Freezes Over - continue my hell series & expand my glacier stuff
or
The Great Dragonspawn Pits - where dragons breed and get ready for the apocalypse

-------------

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

mapping your 6 room dungeon

i will be doing a second set of tables for each type

Giger, the artbook for game Scorn and some of my past work on alien biozones in generation ships and my Xor setting. My Stone Age sorcery book had some stuff for this too.

Eldritch Monolith

In certain desolate places in the world, you can find prehuman ruins of the age of darkness. Each of the four directions you can find them, and there are some cities with eldritch catacombs beneath them. The largest are in remote or dangerous places thought of as lifeless. A great coastal city on the coast of the frozen north, a desert city sometimes revealed in the sand or deep in the caverns of the underland. The oldest ruins are for prehumans and possibly non-humanoid and the most alien. In the Middle period the various beast abhumans in service to the monster kings. The later ones even had humans and orc slaves and the demon gods and planar overlord idols will actually be familiar to modern peoples. Most people shun these places and priests will warn people of meddling with them. Humanity is better off forgetting these places. The interior climate may be very different to outside. They are often cool and absorb heat energy. May have mist inside or even interior weather in large chambers. Very little is flammable inside.

Doorways often have rounded arches, and some have membrane curtain seals.
Some have fleshy sphincter gates or toothy mouthlike portculis.
See through crystal pane or forcewall walls are possible.
Do add local environment decor. Is it in the sea or desert or snow?
Who came here and died in the last few thousand years?

d12 8Eldritch Monolith Decor

1 Obsidian monoliths or pillars
2 Pools of slime, did one quiver?

3 Strange stone urns

4 Sealed pit or well with alien sigils

5 Statues, faces may be smashed off or alien beings

6 Black obsidian altar with weird glyph

7 Weird biological structures overgrown wall surfaces

8 Strange skeleton or mumified body or boney decor

9 Luminous bug colonies or glowing walls

10 Pools and puddles with scuttling trilobites

11 Squat idols, statues and strange sphinxes

12 Walls of carved alien text with occasional images or symbols

d12 Eldritch Monolith Hazards

1 Control altar, with a grid of holes in the top, some with coloured gems inserted. Playing with gem positions or adding them may activate effects. Removing gems may shut down basic functions like light, air, humidity, and temperature

2 Strange angles can be confusing and cause confusion or hypnotic states

3 Alien angles occasionally swallow someone into another dimension or some creature passes through
4 Corpses lying about, if disturbed, may reanimate and hunger

5 Mind of an ancient or alien wizard observes by scrying device

6 Guardian statues come to life

7 Swarm of insects or worms in strange nest colonies

8 Crystal cylinder with swirling pulsing slime inside, dont release the slime!

9 Pit with an improvised or damaged bridge over a chasm of slime and eyes

10 Frozen prehuman in a block of ice, warming the area or altering the environment will thaw it

11 Air pressure increases, causing bloody noses and headaches

12 Dormant eggs hatch if anyone exhales in area

d12 Eldritch Monolith Encounters

1 Swarm of invertibrates, flying or crawling. Worms, trilobites and flies are common

2 Adventurers from rival expedition d4 1=cultists 2=looters 3=wizard and guards 4=explorers

3 Degenarate cave-dwelling tribe or abhuman beast folk

4 Shoggoth out on cleaning patrol or formless black devouring liquid horror

5 Ancient golem or living statue, usually have monster heads or weird abstract figures

6 Undead cultists, tribals or beast folk

7 Floating aerial jellfish with toxic tentacles

8 Slime ooze or gelatinous monster

9 Undead wizard with a servitor or summoned monster guardian

10 Giant flightless bats or terrorbirds or Utah raptors or giant carnivorous albino penguins

11 Non-humanoid eldritch alien creature, now degenerate with a spear

12 Lobster octopus hybrid horror  

d12 Eldritch Monolith Static Encounters

1 Pit with broken seal. Shoggoth, a corrupt elemental or darkness demon, lives here

2 Huge occult sigil on the floor, a planar being is trapped inside

3 Gigantic tentacled frog monstrosity in a black pool

4 Camp of adventurers, may be occupied or might now be undead d4 1=cultists 2=looters 3=wizard and guards 4=explorers

5 Gigantic worm creature (possibly in a cocoon) it was once a wizard and can cast spells

6 Shadows and a wraith slumber in stone crypts

7 Invisible tentacled blood drinking horror from beyond

8 Undead wizard with servants studying ancient apparatus

9 Chamber with alien eggs covered in mist, ready to hatch. The mother might be lurking or dead close by

10 Pool crawling with slime, oozes and gelatinous beings 

11 Gigantic monstrous corpse with giant mites or leeches feasting

12 Elder crinoid alien wizard, barrel-shaped with tentacles, starfish head and shrunken folding wing membranes

d12 Eldritch Monolith Entry

1 Black obsidian tower with a strange ward on stone door slab. Inside is long abandoned but their is a stone lid covering stairs into the deep. A creature might use as a lair or shelter. Humanoids might use as a base. Haunting or guardian being likely also 

2 Icy cold black dripping cave in process of thawing. Frozen melting creatures here may attract carnivores or bears or even tribal hunters. Pools of pure water may have some trilobites or other marine invertebrates. Slippery, wet holes and pits go deeper

3 Dripping sinkhole into an ancient complex in the deep. What seemed to be a cave with cave art and bones of fallen prehistoric beasts has under calcium formations, has stone doors. Other pillars and features are strangely uniform and made by intelligence. A calcium-encrusted panel of crystals can be cleaned and used to open doors and adjust the environment and light. Tribal folk think this place is taboo. There may be a fallen madman, ghouls or undead megafauna in here or an evil guardian spirit. Passages go down to deeper chambers

4 Mysterious crack in the earth with a strange-smelling mist. Inside is a green crystal chamber with sealed crystal doors. They can be shattered or opened with spells. Crystaline guardians or statues may guard here

5 Mysterious crystal doorway in the cliff visible under certain stars. Can be detected with nagic or is you can see invisible. Magic might be required to open it. Inside is a humming, glowing chamber  

6 Beneath a stone slab with a warning script under a ruined old temple. Inside is a black stone chamber with sealed basalt doors. Some kind of magic trap is likely here, and a guardian protects and repairs the complex

7 Through a doorway high up on a cliff, mostly hidden by shadows. Difficult to spot and requires a climb to reach it. In the opening chamber with fossils in walls are remains of a ancient burial and older passages beyond. Undead or a spirit might dwell here

8 Passages in the bottom of stone sarcophagi in a ruined tomb. The passage is older and seems to be biological material like roots or bones or flesh. Creatures live in the walls and will swarm or ambush with hit-and-run tactics. Possibly worms, bugs or giant vermin dwell here, and passages go into the deep. Opening fleshy doors requires the manipulation of nerve ganglia nodes    

9 Circular, perfect hole cut into rock, possibly blocked with stones later. Chamber within with sloping passages and pit exits. The room is round or square and perfectly formed, possibly with magic or superior stonework. Weird loners, witches and cults like this haunted place for its strange aura. Animals shun it

10 Trapped temple ruin with warning symbols of the ancients. Wall art depicting the history of dealings with alien horrors of the outer void frames far older passages below. A guardian might be left to keep mortals out

11 Excavation site with mounds of dirt, dools and the exposed passage into the dungeon. Someone has come to this place with a work crew camp and worked this site. They found a stone-sealed door with warnings. Opening it killed the leaders and drove off the workers. The final pit has opened at least one stone door with various tents around it, with finds and rubble being sorted. Mounds of sorted broken stone urns, bones and fragments with symbols lay around the pit. A guardian will be hiding somewhere, watching 

12 Opened a portal, possibly activated from a scroll or by a relic leads to a portal entry room. Other possibly broken portals or teleporter pads are around the chamber. Broken masonry and dead intruders remains are scattered about. A guardian being protects the portals and some try to maintain the complex 

d12 Eldritch Monolith Sub Rooms

1 Slimy chaos frog demon bound here, released if opened

2 Shelves of alien tablets of occult lore of evil

3 Reliquary with an alien tool, weapon or magic item on a shelf

4 Stone sarcophagi with magic symbols, might be inhabited by sleeping being

5 Mumified corpse, possibly will reanimate or crumble to dust if opened

6 Slime or ooze creature currently dormant

7 Cacoon of some giant bug or worm

8 Pulsating, glowing organic globes with rapidly growing guardian creatures

9 Shadows or a wraith with funeral urns inside

10 Gas or foul odour and some creature corpse that melts into slime when open, may have toxic or diseased miasma

11 Creature in a stasis field with a gem-studded altar

12 Portal with a gem-studded altar, might be open to another plane, possibly elemental or a distant ruin or elsewhere in a complex

d12 Eldritch Monolith Main Room

1 Reliquary of artefacts. Polygon-shaped niches with crystal panes cover strange alien artefacts. Most are magical or biological specimens in a state of stasis. A control panel can open the screens and play sound recordings of strange speech or illusions of alien beings interacting or studying the relics. Guardians and traps are likely. The items do not operate like familiar magic items; most cost the user some resource or temporary attributes or levels. Some cause psychic trauma.

2 Stasis chambers with a polygon symbol on the floor, some are plain, others have a shaft of light from above trapping them in stasis like a crystal column. Each has a crystal control console which can release stasis-trapped beings or turn them to dust or trap intruders. Beings trapped here can be castly old or even recent bumbling thieves or cultists  

3 Portal chamber with a large portal with huge doors and stairs. Likely closed and locked with magic. Linked to an elemental world, some era in the past or a slimy demonic plane. Opening the door is likely to welcome invaders, and a guardian and a trap is possible to prevent that

4 Alien laboratory with a great central slab with benches around it with bottles and unfamiliar tools. Alien machines on armatures can be lowered from above to assist. Several crystal screens show images of past experiments if controls are touched. Cylindrical columns with bubbling fluids have strange creatures growing in them or possibly just brains and nervous systems or other horrors. Some former experiment or automaton might still remain

5 Alien library with vast collections of tablets, conical metal disks, metallic books and strange scrolls. Cultists and wizards may visit here, but a guardian stops you from leaving with books, even ones you brought. So more recent recognisable books will be here also, not just alien gibberish

6 Prison chamber with sealed pits on the floors, doors all around walls and possibly hatches in the ceiling. A central dais with a console controls all doors. Immortal gibbering mutants are in their cells cry for release. A warden of some kind might maintain the room and the prisoners 

7 Pit chamber with a great dark hole into the deep. Will be a walkway around or over it. A plarform where victims are hurled from. A gong or a horn or bell awakens the pit dweller or its minion. A vast slumbering alien god dwells here with its parasites  

8 Eldritch machine with strange apparatus. May be biological even a creature plumbed into the structure. Room surfaces hum and glow. Several gem control consoles control whatever operates here. Automatons or some devolved former operator might dwell here. Alarms or traps also 

9 Barrier chamber a polygon chamber but all doors are on otherside of a barrier of force, fire or some other threat. Maybe a wall of swarms or thorns. Small hostile creatures may defend the wall

10 Control chamber with hundreds of rows of gem controls. An operator automaton or a devolved resident lives here. A screen may show the complex and inhabitants or looped scenes of prehistory 

11 Forbidden Temple with alien idols and ornate art. Undead robed priests of a cult are here to question if intruders or new cult members.

12 Alien Sarcophagi chamber with some giant alien humanoid. It might be undead like a vampire and hungry if woken up. It will have weird treasures

d12 Eldritch Monolith Feature

1 Observatory with a domed ceiling, and diagrams of hstars on floor. Several control altars can project on the ceiling scenes of the heavens. See the celestial palaces of the star spirits, the heavenly citadel, the world tree, the cosmic mountain, the sun and moon gods in their chariots, selenites being enslaved by gnome troops on the moon, the planetary realms of the great gods and through the great dome into the realm of the outer gods where hungry beings swarm. A guardian of some kind, likely, but living or undead cultists likely too. 

2 Cosmic Egg, a glowing, enigmatic orb or egg is kept secure inside a forcewall or magical field. Might have a vacuum or different gravity inside. Is it s d4 1=doomsday device 2=egg of a kaiju 3=planar communion device 4=vision orb. May have a guardiam or alien wizards or undead cultists working the consoles

3 Genesis device, a great gold cube with a planar language script. Text may grow or the box can float so one person can move it at Mov3 (otherwise it weighs over a ton). If the control grid is tampered with it starts a countdown in alien voices. If opened d4 1=skeltal angels come out to kill all witnesses, then fly into sky forever  2=shoots a 6d6 lightning bolt each round at lawful beings until closed 3=liquid slime and mutagenic spores from abhoth the slime god who will form an avatar in some dark forbidden place to grow, the box held it in stasis. 4=seversal tons of flesh and biological structures grow out per round, smothering any who get close. It is part of Xor a dimension of infinite flesh and hunger who eats worlds. The box is guarded by some monster but the right hand gestures that it will back down. Well you can try and use human limbs anyway

4 Alchemical refinery with huge crystal vats where creatures are grown of kept asleep  for aeons. Some vats and an alien lab can be used for alchemy if you have enough materials. Constructs, golems or slime monsters might lurk here

5 Crystal chamber with crystal structures and surfaces of brilliant glowing consoles. An altar with crystal rods operated the chamber. Crystal sarcophagi for subjects are possible or a marked area of floor might have a marked area or geometric shape in a different colourA guardian or cultists might be here. The controls can use the power of crystals d4 1=open a time bubble for observation, travel, opening stasis boxes or disintegration 2=has banks of sarcophagi to drain humans and make into power gems to operate eldritch technology 3=crystal resurrection chamber 4 = convert organic to crystalline immortal life. Some kind of fuel might also be required

6 Stargate chamber with a coded locked console gate with an iris valve that transports targets to some mysterious location. Often has a guardian caretaker or cultists trying to open it. Controls can define where the gate opens d4 1=ruined alien city under the deep in the dark depths, opening this flooded chamber and starting a countdown to seal the complex 2 = alien monastery above the world with alien beings, possibly with automaton knight bodies in robes. They watch the earth, awaiting a new age of darkness 3=distant jungle temple or pyramid 4=lunar temple ruin

7 Vortex test chamber with alien machines, crystals and brains in vats, with a large inner crystal chamber with two doors to get in. Consoles surround the chamber where a subjects inside can be d4 1=environmental tests (pressure, temperature, atmosphere, temporal fields, mutagenic rays or elemental plane simulations) 2=vortex opens and can be used to observe banished hungry evil beings of the outer darkness and the can see back 3=conjure an elemental node where elemental beings can enter our world and provide energy or raw materials 4=can conjure beings imprisoned in a pocket dimension in stasis through a dimensional vortex

8 Arcane engine with some vast machine with crystals, jars of light, gringing pistons and unearthly noise and vibrations. Control consoles around the room control the machine, which may have automaton or undead workers. An exiled alien or wizard might use this as part of a sheme d4 1=machine that sucks souls and creates underad from victims in hopper 2=produces a shoggoth, slimes or flesh golems from protoplasm vats or throw bodies in hopper to make protoplasm 3=controls environment in the region, with quakes can raise or lower land level, or use weather or make a micro climate over a few miles 4=awakens kaiju across the continant and they start a terraforming process which might include their violent battles or love making

9 Pilot Throne chair on dais reached by stairs. Has control gem grids on arm rests and possibly a crystal helmet. Lesser control stations in niches or a pit surround the throne dais, and a great crystal disk is positioned in front of these. If touched, alien holographic displays flicker on, and the big screen may start. The complex is a star-travelling vessel, and a launch sequence to the moon, or some other world, may be triggered. Doors will close and the vessel will begin to shake as it rises, then accelerates into the void. Concealed niches with guardians might be ready to repel intruders

10 Colossal crypt with a huge ornate black stone sarcophagus weighing tons. A console might help open, revealing a crystal coffin with an alien vampire within who will awaken. It has unusual forms, powers, vermin it can summon and weaknesses to kill. Other ancient alien or planar beings might also be imprisoned

11 Alien sphynx on a dais in the middle of a chamber. It is streamlined and alien. If awakened, its eyes will light up and it will offer knowledge for knowledge. Often has a series of lesser sphynx more like faceless deco gargoyles who will protect the great one. This is a synthetic intelligence that dealt with humanoid minions for the masters and is used to communicate in any language via magic. Some include divination orbs to expand the sphynx range. It might offer quests to find cosmic secrets. Often better informed than most local beings here. It cannot be removed, but it can be destroyed. Some might be blinded. They cannot move but they can cast spells

12 God Prison, a great sealed pit with control consoles. Controls may open the pit for inspections or communication but sets off alarms, flashing lights, and release mist. Using two sets of controls at the same time, you can release the god who will try to eat as many as it can and gate away, leaving a portal behind them. Might be corrupted elemental or slime or living darkness or some more forgotten prehuman demon. Sometimes the bound god is being tormented for resources or magic power

Crystal control altars and you
Control altars have a grid of 2x2 or 4x4 8x8 or 16x16 holes for crystals
Moving crystals tend to alter their current function
Removing them shuts some systems down
Adding can produce obvious results, usually increasing lighting and ambient sound
The more gem slots the more powerful the system
Gems are red green blue yellow red green magenta, and orange
Blear gems are depowered and spent
Black gems are cracked and burned out

d12 Common Crystal FX 2x2 or 4x4
can be opened by anyone with a basic stat roll, given time and notes taking
eventually, with practice, you can manipulate common consoles like locks

1 Lighting

2 Heat/Cold

3 Mist/Humidity

4 Complex vibration and hums

5 Klaxon or alien speech repeated

6 Seal or open doors

7 Illusions of past events

8 Atmospheric mix or gas venting

9 Magic items glow

10 Make petty spirits visible

11 Telepathic contact in an alien language

12 Attract wandering monsters

d12 Rare Crystal FX 8x8+
can be hacked with cryptography, given time and notes taking
eventually, with practice, you can manipulate like locks

1 Summon aliens from beyond

2 Summon spirits from beyond

3 Psionic attack from beyond
4 Everyone slowed or hastened
5 Open or close a stasis bubble (might unknowingly lose years or worse)

6 Telepathic contact from an alien mind

7 Open a portal or teleporter pad

8 Alarm increases wandering monsters

9 Causes mutations

10 Move the whole complex to another location

11 Anti magic zone - no effect on complex 

12 Increase or decrease dimensional barriers - might see things from beyond swarming like giant plankton in air or might see you too and attack or dimensional beings or effects dont work properly

d12 Where do I find crystal control altars or gems
1 Next to doors to open or unlock them, rarer ones are more complex. Used by ancients or wizards who want to impress with old relics they have obtained 
2 Room master controls for environmental settings, including strange light spectra, fog for humidity, heating, cooling and lighting. Larger ones have alien music and voices, and might project images

3 Long empty simple sockets might be on ancient stone monoliths to open concealed doors. Inside will be a chamber larger than is possible, with a more complex control altar inside. 
4 Four sockets in a stone wall, not obvious at all. Reveals secret, invisible, locked doors in a stone wall. Might be a single chamber or a base

5 Old temples may have a control altar hidden with warnings and traps to control local environment

6 On covers that lock metallic books of alien wizards

7 Local tribal leaders might have gems in their ritual dress and items and priests might have a control socket grid on a chest plate or helmet, possibly granting powers. They may know a secret site they use as a treasury or tomb and open seasonally

8 Prehistoric prehuman jewellery sometimes finds its way to collectors or wizards with gems or a control grid that can attach to systems with panels broken or missing but only simple ones

9 Later magic workers may have incorporated them into other devices, you will have to break them to use the gems

10 Might find a grid of gold with gems mixed with ancient treasure or it has been hijacked as a lock for a chest

11 Ancient crashed ornithopters or airships or aether flyers might have gems and panels. Long buried or undersea
12 Certain monstrous species use the gems and grids they hijack the function of. Mostly simple ones