Saturday 28 December 2013

Making thieves more appealing


Having had a player walk mid game while playing a thief of late I began to question can I change the class to fix this? Normally If a player is unhappy I try to help them and I would be willing to fix the problem. A while back I found most players chose spell casters and preferred fighters and thieves for hired flunkies and followers. So I did some little changes to warrior types that seemed to help. Most players have come to be impressed by what a real fighter can do at higher levels and have become more popular.

Remember old BX thieves had d4 HP and cruddy skill percents at start and double a d4 or d6 backstab occasionally is not so great. Many standard thief skills were not being used much. Spells often supersede thief abilities at higher level. A low magic item would make them shine more or make class abilities redundant like stealth items or cloak of flying. One blog put it thus: thieves suck!

Closest I got to thief was a Assasin in ADnD which had more options than a standard thief with poison and instant kill and disguise. I got up to 14th level and did same with a ninja/wujen. Played fighter/thieves and MU/thieves too.

My current homebrewMy concept is they are the masters of skill and mine get a new whole interesting skill to pick every level. Not as reliable or powerful as spells but usable far more often.  I want my thieves to be roguish swashbucklers, able too fight and perform daredevil type feats of skill . Many abilities in the 2nd ed ultimate thieves book tempting.

My NWP system made most skills have higher odds of success with stat rolls, more choices for interesting skills. As I am also a RQ gamer the idea someone else can't climb or sneak at all is a bit lame to me or the thief versions of these abilities need to be far superior. I always liked giving bonus chances for equipment too.
 

I built my whole NWP skill system from original ADnD 1st Ed Oriental Adventures and Dungeoneers Survival Guide. I Replace thief skills with NWP and made them get the most NWP of any class. Having NWP, theif skills, ranger skills, assassin skills, background skills all with different mechanics seemed a bit silly in 1st ed. So I streamlined all into one NWP system and took some ideas from 3.5 feats for some new ones. I really hate later skill systems and prefer to save workable mechanics rather than make new ones. This was to make stats more used (I use them for saving throws too). I made system to make life easier for thieves but bait has only been nibbled. Some players have said they prefer my system and some other DMs borrowing from me which is positive.

I recently added additional pluses on NWP for higher levels which worked well and gave thieves slight improvements. I really liked castles and crusades thief with d8 HD and a ambush ability on top of backstab. The biggest deviation I tried was adding ability to kill one unconscious/sleeping/prone person per level per round (not necessarily monsters) . This wasn't too unbalanced and a few times a thief in enemy barracks has been devastating. I will mod this to be 1HD/lv for non humanoids.

After 30 years without pure thief players I had some renewed interest in the class. Two teen boys played chaotic evil classic thieves and did best job of playing alignment and class for new players I had seen in a long time. Had a 6th level Morlock change to thief to get more skills as he felt he was deadly enough in battle. Had a player take a thief as an assassin who was the one that ended up walking from a game mid way through. He was frustrated by needing to sneak off on solo missions to use abilities, inability to use magical items and even when he got to backstab it was not very effective compared to extra attacks and hit odds of fighters. Had a few others thieves of late too.

When I posed this dilemma online these are some responses I got:

don't bother with them and axe them
(I want to save this classic DnD trope, for the record I do like them but don't want to force them. I played most of the PC games without thieves. Another common thread suggested to use NPCs which I do and to have NPCs shared so everyone gets a go which was more novel)

use more traps
(I use plenty - they use followers, spells, tools or stooges, don't mind attracting monsters in fact some
would happily stand at entrance and ring a bell with an army)

use poison
(I need to explore this option with a post of its own - i fondly remember poison in MERP - possibly poison damage based on makers level, cost and ingredients, a basic poison with 1hp dam/lv might be viable or lethal/sleep poison that has FX vs creatures of certain HD based on makers level. Need to be careful whole party not poison mad as really just not that hard or dangerous to use in real life. I have never restricted poison use to any class, possibly alignment more a factor)

contrive more situations for them to shine
(Requires solo time separating group often, actually I cant do this if not many being played in first place. When I ran a game with 12 players of oriental adventures half party were ninjas and kept running off to do solos and working together and even earned more xp which had non ninjas pretty unhappy. Would have ended in bloodbath if kept going. Even last game with two thieves ended up stealing DM time from rest of party. Designing stuff to make them shine is a problem if thief not around or doesn't take the chance. My luck point idea should encourage to do this)

my DMing must be bad if I don't contrive them chances to shine
(Possible but how do players know i will be a jerk to thieves if nobody has played one? I am looking for mechanical fixes not stylistic ones)

my players must be bad for not wanting to play them
(Possible but mean. Many commentators seemed to find this incredible. In my 80s AdnD games was common to multiclass to make wizards who could still act without spells and sneaky fighters which worked with low xP cost and with infravision made far superior characters than a single class thief. Low XP needs of thief would make them highest level in party which would have some advantages. I prefer to balance classes to use same XP table in play or not use XP as it slows play)

players need to just roleplay harder
(Mechanical fix will let dumb players play too, any class better with clever player. I remembered some 2nd ed kits had roleplaying based properties versus mechanical ones which is noble but problematic as a paladin. No two players will play same way)

use outdoor traps more
(Actually I like this lots - will include near lairs or camps and put on encounter tables more as I use traps when my characters camping in most games)

make backstabbing easier(This is possible as I am mean with definition of backstab in play. Castles and crusades ambush that works with missiles and even face to face is good too. Newer eds have blindside options and usable in combat. Next draft of rules will look into this. Possibly will merge backstab and ambush just increase situations it can be used in to include side, ambush and missiles which keeps role as non front line fighter alive. Streamlining into one rule might be a good answer. Players using jump, wall running, acrobatics tactically now)

play 3.5, pathfinder or 4th edition or castles and crusades
(Or I could quit DnD and play RQ too where everyone can do everything or anything - i will look at some of these versions for ideas though - C&C was a big influence)

add various martial feats(I don't think they should be as good as monks or fighters i have lots of martial arts weapon proficiencies - possibly as overwhelming choices hard for some players some example kits including progressions at higher level would be good - this would benefit all classes and help make quick NPCs and new characters. Actually examples I give now including classic DnD thief skills set are helpful)

give them critical hits or better odds(I currently have warriors get a critical on a natural 20 and let others buy this with one weapon proficiency slot and let players up this with more slots. Id prefer this to be a choice than a standard feature. Some martial arts skills require -4 to hit or can choose result with any critical hit. Combined with backstab my thieves can KO, trip and other things better than most. Example builds better than changing)

players fault for not thinking
(Just seems mean spirited - thinkers make any class better)

my players must all be idiots
(Seems unlikely as i probably had about 50 players in last 6 months as i managed a club and was running 5-7 sessions a week. I'm sure none of them has IQ below 100 even the dumber ones)

i must be an idiot
(Wow. Apparently my desire to customize my dnd games and earnest players choices makes me an idiot while following rules that are not working is answer)

give them magical or more amazing versions of abilities
(This is a feature of original class with deciphering languages and using scrolls so will have these in my example kits or make one more magical kit or even a dungeon specialist. Let them learn cantrips at higher level? New assassins have turned into magic ninjas which I find intriguing. Others suggested making high level thief skills even more fabulous and superhuman which is interesting idea. One person suggested could apply skills to others - climb roll to save others falling, disarm a trap even after activated to save another adventurer, leading party in a group sneak)

use even more traps
(Ok I get the hint but players of my kobold hellhole redbrick dungeons think a trap every 30 feet is plenty and they often don't have a thief)

I must be a bad DM
(possible but the personal attack is the worst form of debate - i actually find it pretty shameful so many people responded to my request for mechanical variants with such scorn so readily. Some kind players tell me I'm best Dm or best sandbox gamer. I'm prepared to change and adapt even if all players want to be magic users or thieves. Some players don't like me because I play DnD not serious games like  rifts/vampires/steampunk/shadowrun/whatever postmodern magic is. I had one player quit at end of my 20 year marvel game and to be fair he had probably played every cliche, trope and story I had in me plus some non game personal reasons.)

I must be here to just troll everyone
(No I just want ways to make appealing so players have a chance to see how unfairly I treat thieves in game - yes this is sarcasm. I thought were forums of discussion and i really wanted mechanical variants, has become more lowbrow and more about product collecting and fanservice of late)

I must be a heretic to not accept sacred word of Gygax/wizards of the coast(possibly true but my definition of oldschool is customizing rules is fine. DnD to me is about customizing game for your taste, that's part of creativity of game. To be fair group mellowed out when I clarified question and qualified i was not a troll and did not consider abuse to be useful advice. Amazing anyone use bad DM abuse with so little information and no evidence other than disagreeing with you)

What I am most likely to do:
More poison rules
Setting traps rules not just disarming them
Make backstabbing opportunities easier
More example kits to demonstrate builds including higher level choices
Include some magical skills on thief list like cantrips and using magic items
Allow some skills to be used to help others even after they have failed their own rolls
Try to be better DM

Second Chance Points
Currently using this system in play. Has saved many players from death but players feel they were almost killed so thrill of risk still there. Also makes WIS stat more useful for all players - they feel sorry for player with no points. If I want to be a bastard I can get them to waste on saving throws.

Get one point plus WIS bonus (a minus WIS bonus equals no points)
Rogues/Thieves get one extra per level
Can spend this many points per session

A point allows a re-rolled dice roll on damage, skills, saves, stats or anything
A point can stop bleeding in negative HP to stabilize further losses
A point allows you to remember an item you forgot to bring on your equipment list
A point allows you to change a memorised spell

These can be applied to aid your immediate followers also
If the second chance fails you may try another point

All this isn't too unbalancing. A thief hopefully will use this to do more risk taking daredevil feats, ensure those essential hits and sneak attempts and soften their failures. I think this fits in well with my concept of masters of skill who take unbelievable risks.

Any ideas welcome in my comment box

Friday 27 December 2013

Psychon log: Space Conquerers of the devils submall

celebrating 100 000 reads here in just over a year
still running off a tablet at moment which has been ok
have not been able to work on projects i wanted too
playing Temple of elemental evil game again for old times sake

here is something i thought id posted

Endgame of Planet Psychon first campaign:

Started off party at 6th lv as I thought was too tough a setting but will start next game at 1st. These guys ended this game at 9th. It was fun having visit metamorphosis alpha, gamma world and Carcosa but too much tech disadvantaged some players. Will up magic more or add more magic too tech scenarios lifted from other settings.  Id run party again but I'm hoping to start all games with a blank slate in new year. I also want to inject more background and story into sandbox games even though half players drop in and out often. I'm also stingy with magic items which i need to get over. Some tech influencing spells might be nice too. Ignite Explosive spell would be nightmare though. Let players charge phones with cantrip which was nice. Had a Thief player walk from this game. I wish he had discussed his beef but I will address elsewhere. I will try and get him back as I haven't ever had player spit dummy mid game in 30 years. I usually try to address problems players have if they are dissatisfied.

Some Issues at club like who plays with who and who doesn't get along beyond my control. In past I have been blessed with consistent players but in club setting I need to be flexible. I like story based campaigns but harder when players vary often. I have some core players which is good but if a semi regular gets involved deeply in a story then not around in important session makes hard. Some players move plot hard others more passive. Still plenty of adventurers ahead.

Last time party on Warden II exploring a jungle hab module in the generation colony ship orbiting the moon. Moritascus the Druid, a Hawkman, and a Morlock and a Priest of Pheonix were camping in a eco control lab in the artificial jungle. While most of party were talking to a scientist the decantered from a clone vat some other party members were teleported in by the goddess Pheonix in. A El'dren with his riding spider and an assassin. As they chatted about what to do the gormless button mashing Hawkman came through the jungle with a hoard of vegepygmies. The Druid spoke to them and their shaman and explained humans meant no harm messing with the sacred site. He with the morlock reprogrammed the ecobot to stop spraying the vegemen with weed killer which pleased them. The druid took some of their seeds to spawn on Psychon and was keen to make hybridised more delicious psychonian versions.

Priest and Druid consulted gods and a magic oracle with what was best course of action. Gods wanted the ship where it was as it was a goldmine of genetic and AI components. Plan was to go to local spacedock and set up a better link to earth. While passing through tunnels they saw approaching squad of security androids with stun guns. Assassin hid and waited to pass while party set up defencive stance. Stun rifles devastated the party but the assassin, morlock and hawk dished out lots of damage. The elren summoned a hoard of gun wielding cherubs and the party managed to route the androids who were not equipped for melee.

Managed a victory and found stardock. Had a medical shuttle, a cargo ship, a lunar shuttle and a strange alien ship like a streamlined bullet-fetus that Hans Giger might paint. The alien ship was approached and a miniature version with guns inbuilt hovered out to threaten them. Assassin crept inside and while party battled outside he used energy mace to kill all the sleeping beings in their docking bays. Turns out were cyborg horrors returned from the stars to reclaim earth after centuries in space as cyborgs.

Cargo ship full of stasis frozen biological material of ancients and medibay had a high tech med bay capable of growing clones. Morlock keen to learn to grow own creations. Found a female android nurse the Eldren adopted which outraged the the assassin who left (more on this later).

Established link to Psychon and the god Pheonix and party beamed back to their recently claimed orbital station. Spent time relaxing and left new Dr and Maritascus to start garden on repaired section of station. Recharged and repaired weapons and debated what to do next. Pheonix offered to send to Morlock homeland. He came from a Walmart store buried for centuries where the management caste had been infiltrated by devils. The party morlock had left as he had exposed the truth and had to flee for his life.

Party refreshed and recharged artifact weapons including a power mace, military laser rifle and stun guns aplenty. Beamed down to horrible contaminated volcanic wasteland and vault door to sub world of VValmar. Went through sub train tunnel to the morlock cargo dock. Entered the Eloi herding warhouse district and mugged a morlock Shepard boy. Eloi lounging in luxury furnished open area with narcotic fountains and food dispensers. Sheperd boy directed them to managers section and party sneaked most of the way by pretending to be morlocks prisoners. Eventually found morlock command area guarded by Morlocks dressed in red. Morlock spoke to them in diabolic as he suspected they were devils and it paid off. Took to admin central with secretarial pool, manager offices and board room. Managed to talk way into office. Dispator knew they were up to no good and called his erinyes secretaries from netherworld and adopted his true form. He threw a wall of flame up and used his terror gaze to drive most of party into wall.

Battle raged on and those scorched running through wall got into battle in lobby. Team battling Dispater managed to pretty well with eldren summoned hoards of cherubs that couldn't hurt Disipator managed to kill his bodyguards, secretaries. Devil lord smacked them around like toys and got some stunning criticals. Hawkman especially with a 10d6 energy mace.

The Devil management team fled and the Morlock hero had grey haired secretaries anoint his wounds and proclaim him the saviour of the subworld. Party nabbed the Devils loot and returned to their space station and trained themselves for a few weeks. Hawk even located his home hab of flying hawkmen citadel to invade later on.

Players all pleased. I may run these guys again but a good moment to end. Lots of experience running higher level games of late has been good. One of best things has been rolling as many dice as possible at once instead of separately. Fully adopted ascending AC which has proved easier on new and old players. Players have been very action oriented which has been fun. Look forward to starting again with lessons learnt.

I was reminded of 2 years ago when i wanted to play dnd or gammaworld and could only choose one. All this came about from my thinking  based on that problem. As a kid I hated mashup genre stuff and was a purist. I must be over that.

Thursday 26 December 2013

d100 Wierd Science Fantasy Sidekicks of Psychon



Regular followers are usually lower level adventurers but mounts and pets are possible too. These are mostly small pets which have various uses making them like useful magic items or tech. Could also be alternate familiars. I would let them improve also. Meant to be for starting characters to roll on for a starting follower or two instead of a zero level flunky. Like most flunkies still require good treatment or will not function or leave.

D100 Sidekicks of Psychon
1 Sentient singing crystal knows exotic lore
2 Huge slug with breasts lactates narcotic chocolate flavored milk
3 Tiny mushroom man releases choking spores
4 Talking hamburger gives birth to baby edible burgers
5 Magic pudding edible and regrows if whole thing not eaten
6 Zombie cat an able scout with undead resistances
7 Vampire bat winged weasel, able scout and thief
8 Talking bottle of booze, refills daily, listens to people’s problems
9 Bearded wizard snake can casts some spells
10 Small pet boulder rolls after owner, sneaky and can trip foes
11 Winged fish can scout air or water
12 Small flute playing gremlin, excellent cook
13 Knife loving goblin is awesome at sharpening and throwing edged weapons
14 Luminous flying jellyfish provides light
15 Sleazy talking rat gets info from local rats gangs
16 Communal intelligent insect hive or wasps or bees can sting foes
17 Granny spider spins webs and can knit into nets, rope and fishing line
18 Talking goat makes tasty milk and can talk to other goats
19 Crafty land octopus good at repairs, weapon and armour maintenance
20 Sentient winged hour glass keeps track of times and dates
21 Winged pyramid with eye, excellent scout and observer, very lawful
22 Creepy ventriloquist dummy, sneaky back stabber
23 Miniature triffid aggressively protective of owner
25 Talking goose knows ancient legends and fairy tales
26 Smoking winged monkey an able scout and thief
27 Clockwork soldier has a tiny gun with bayonet
28 Cat size sphinx expert on riddles and puzzles
29 Shifty kobold trap master and miner
30 Tiny fire elemental lives in a lamp, good stove and light
31 Tiny earth elemental carry goods, scout through walls and makes bricks
32 Tiny water elemental provide drinks, cleans and aquatic scout
33 Tiny air elemental provides air, makes breezes and invisible flying scout
35 Drug addict smoking monkey can identify potions by smell
36 Winged talking snake with excellent senses
37 Horrible aggressive green sneaky midget with blowpipe
38 Small flying cherub with first aid skills
39 Spherical drone able to communicate with many devices
40 Short drone able mechanic with welder/cutting torch
41 Winged purple homunculus able scout and messenger
42 Hovering ball size target drone with tiny laser (mostly for target designation)
43 Medical drone an able medic
44 Clockwork swordsman
45 Clockwork flying bird can carry person short distance
46 Riding flightless bird, nervous but will defend self if cannot flee
47 Giant caterpillar with hookah, reads obscure magical languages
48 Sneaky thieving gremlin likes jokes and taunts
49 Well endowed cherub likes foul smutty jokes has a tiny pistol and cigars
50 Sentient crystal can detects invisible and hidden foes
51 Sentient crystal can detect charms or psionic coercion
52 Sentient crystal detects deliberate lies
53 Sentient crystal detects hostile thoughts
54 Symbiotic crystal implanted in head acts as night vision eye and offers moral advice
55 Symbiotic worm prevents host from bleeding to death or getting parasites
56 Lizard can discharge acid, cause small wounds or dissolve locks or bars
57 Sentient jelly can ooze through cracks silently and has acidic touch
58 Sentient smartsuit, self repairs and change colour and texture
59 Bird of prey an able scout and rabbit catcher
60 Clever pony comes when called, can count with hoof taps, painfully adorable
61 Invisible formless thing a scout or porter
62 Spirit can scout and see non corporeal or invisible otherworld beings
63 Ghost can scout and invisible, may have some knowledge
64 Invisible snake of any colour
65 Talking dog, excellent tracker and alert guardian
66 Exploding frog, reforms and can re-explode a few times a day
67 Grasshopper likes to smoke, can fly, leap and excellent scout
68 Poltergeist spirit, throws tantrums and objects if friend harmed
69 Hypnotic frog can put a victim in a trance
70 Gnome with toolkit able with locks and traps
71 Fairy can invisibly scout, steal coins and keys, sprinkle glitter
72 Sexy dancing lady minor imp, excellent distraction
73 Teleporting cat with big grin, able scout and distraction
74 Robot sex toy pleasures anyone for a coin
75 Giant airborne plankton provides healthy chlorophyll food
76 Sentient winged chair able to carry person for short flights several times a day
77 Crab mechanic, slightly grumpy and silent
78 Helmet provides tactical advice and historical examples
79 Sword leaps into hand, glows, boasts about wielder
80 Horn can blow self and will call out if owner incapacitated
81 Toymaking elf makes salable toys from scraps
82 Goose lays a 1gp gilded egg every day, offers moral advice and stories
84 Magical pony shrinks from pocket to full size riding beast
85 Flying carpet for one, an knock over foes, getting old and only limited uses per day
86 Camera brownie can paint any scene directed to, likes to live in tiny box
87 Harp can play self and knows songs of heroes, monsters and dungeons
88 Guitar can play self and shoot flares, fireworks and pyrotechnics
89 Toon being, difficult to harm but vulnerable to fire, acid and energy
90 Ice daemonling keeps cold, stab with icicle
91 Fire Imp starts fires, heats dinner, stabs with teeny trident
92 Walking suitcase follows hero with baggage
93 Sentient book full of facts, turns to relevant pages when needed and documents owners life
94 Baby salamander adorably pyromaniac shoots fire and blows smoke rings
95 Talking winged piglet advocates being vegetarian and being everybodies friend
96 Sentient ring evaluates treasure and may know some history
97 Magical scroll translates other documents, sometimes prejudiced
98 Data tablet interfaces with other devices, downloads images of vice
99 Backpack hands stuff to owner when needed at will, offers combat vet advice
100 Gun, talks, likes to shoot people, unjam self and accept different calibre ammo

Wednesday 25 December 2013

Psychonlog: New Jack Heroes


X-mas adventure on the road:
So in Adelaide, my laptop with no power bought this tablet and wouldn’t plug into laptop and last juice ran out so didn’t even get a chance for USB before power ran out. Doh. This is third tablet of same model replacement so hopefully disaster proofed by numbers. First lasted a week, second died second time I unplugged it. I found this one had best keyboard and great when working so I stuck with it. Back in my home town for xmas. Seems slow paced. Many shops couldn’t be bother opening. I walked from a restaurant that couldn’t be bothered serving me and had a Cornish pastie instead as that’s one thing Adelaide does better than Sydney.

Caught up with old friends and had a game of Psychon. I’d played with these guys for over 20 years so I treasure the 3 or 4 sessions a year I get with them now. City seems way to quiet for me but I have been offered several possible inheritances houses here and if my health went to hell might end up back here again one day.

Was tempted to settle in Fitzroy Melbourne but just heard someone I knew was killed there on street on the street Wednesday. I’m pretty sure he said something shitty to some strangers so I am not really surprised. Still a bit sad but the two guys who did it (one blow) were just unlucky as dozens of people had attacked him before. I’d had guys try to rob me same area and I just looked unimpressed and said no and ended up talking about heavy metal with them. I think Sydney is safer of three cities even though it is the biggest.

Psychon New Jack Stylin:
So a good chance to try out my Psychon game with these guys. The character generation went fast and were pretty entertaining. Richard came up with some weird ideas for followers and Michael followed suit. Will impact every player and deserved a blog of its own (d100 weird potential followers). Will start next Sydney campaign with new characters at level 1 when I return. All Psychon really needs is some mutations rules and some weird science classes. Some discussions of including under beast men plant men and elemental men (rock men). I’m also reminded of Element masters game from early 80s I never saw but realize could be a goldmine of ideas so I will try to find. I will write a comprehensive review of 80s RPG from Melbourne RUS a Russian fantasy fairytale romance game and will include Super Squadron and Hunter Planet also shortly.
 
I let party draw what hex they began in from a pile which worked well.

Adventure begins - staring: 
Callan the Golden – a burnished golden scaled skinned rogue with metallic cyan dreadlocks. Has cat eyes, snail antenna with violet blood and crimson plasma. Tastes and smells of rose water. A second story robber whose family were killed by beastmen as a child and luckily fell down a well where he was raised by tiny mushroom men. With one of his mushroom pals in his pocket and his pet bat winged vampire weasel. He carries a gas mask for when his mushroom releases a chocking spore cloud and has a batch of eye drops that act as a shrinking potion. He prefers to use daggers and prefers to stun foes with a blackjack from behind than kill or use his acrobatics and climbing and balancing skills to escape. He worshiped Centipedus the mecha-centipede god who guards magic mushrooms from greedy bugs and invaders.

Vanity the Bard – a electro performer from the 1980s lost in some jungle ruins on a band tour on a drug spree and woke up on Psychon. He now has green slimy skin, two tentacles on each limb instead of fingers and toes and a lamprey tongued. He tastes of eucalyptus and has tangerine blood.  An expert with martial punch and uses spiked cestus. Plays an atomic keytar found in ruins that could explode if abused. Has a cherub familiar with large genitals he calls the smut fairy because all in play rude gags are blamed on it. Followers include a singing crystal with knowledge of the ancients, a girl groupie shield maiden with tangerine skin and green hair, and jugs his 2 foot giant slug with breasts that lactate chocolate flavoured blade venom. Vanity uses psionic spell list specializing in divination. Plays Kraftwork, Trio, Falco and minimalistic euro electro from 80s.

Vanity was fleeing a band of angry koala men chasing him for his delicious scented flesh when a mist came and a robed ancient honky appeared guiding him into the fog.
 
Callan and his mushroom were fleeing a giant mole when the same man appeared in a fog cloud.
 
Both men and friends appeared standing on moist chalky ivory soil in a might forest. Twenty story green trunked trees with huge shades canopy of violet leaves. Smells of pineapple, chlorine and sandalwood wafted through the air and beams of burning light streaked through the foliage, shielding life from the burning sun. A clearway through the woods had a great cracked metal road, scoldingly hot from the horrendous glaring sun. The shade either side was well travelled. One way went to a horrendous treeless desert the other deeper in the woods.
 
The group made acquaintance and marched to the cooler lands deep in the woods. After a while they saw from the heat shimmer on the road two figures. Two wizened sun parched yellow skin zombies marched towards them and the gang finished them. Later they heard discordant music ahead. Curious they crept up and saw three eldren in fine robes playing a bard battle with three magenta savages.
 
“They’ve got jewellery” said Callum
“Interesting music and instruments” said Vanity

The eldren played a harp, a complex brass multi keyed horn and a flute. The savages played a mono note horn, drums and bagpipes. As the battled, Vanity joined in with his keytar paying kraftwork style simplistic sythpop. The amazed locals looked on while Callum sneaked behind them in case they proved hostile. They battled till Vanity beat them and the angry savage men slinked away in anger. The eldren explained their currency was knowledge and music and invited party to follow them to their city.
They described the features and threats of the Magenta woods on the way.
  • Savage human hunters claimed to rule the land in the past but are wrong
  • Mixed race gangs of outcasts who charge traveller tax without any legal righ
  • Fire cultists who kidnap sacrifices on way to a fire elemental node
  • Pilgrims to a temple of colossus in the desert in sun proof robes and goggles
  • Mongrel men and yellow zombies from a ruined ancient city
  • Mutant wolves and stags
  • Ancient barrows with evil mound wights of ancient yellow men
  • A ruined alien steam works where bestial savage greys lurk
  • And a evil race of bearded horned wizard snakes
  • A school of bards attracts musicians from far away also
Killed a larger zombie gang and a bunch of fire cultists with sacrificial daggers. Callums mushroom brother used his choking spore cloud to great effect before seeing the mighty Eldren citadel thirty stories high. Most was full of eldren some who never had left their palaces in hundreds of years, but the lowest level was a foreign quarter for merchants of other lands. They were settled in a inn and paid for zombie heads and offered jobs where they would be interviewed by scribes till they ran out of good stories. Eldren only used cash to deal with foreigner’s.  After a few days of healing they recruited a gang to explore the ruins. Adventurers from many lands were here so plenty to choose from. Vanity used his history spell to assess them.
  • Glatz a lapis morlock heretic who accidently ate a companion and has turned into a vegetarian with a deathwish
  • Martzen one of the Eldren the party had befriended and a crack archer
  • Glag and Glolz local savage hunters who had killed many parties with betrayal for a generation
  • Lolz a green skinned vetran warrior man who had lost his last party and hope to resolve his past losses
  • Mondd a gold skinned priest of collossus outcast for dropping food in the temple sacred punchcard reader and hoped to find something to atone himself
 
Vanity warned all of Glag and Glolz plans and had visions of their use of monster lairs to kill and rob parties. Their father had died in such a scheme years ago.
 
Marched through the woods and found ruins overgrown with great trees and half buried in leaf litter. Saw a huge covered pit the traitors led them too and pushed one of the traitors in. The other was backstabbed by Callum. A giant ant lion killed and dragged the savage in its hole in the bottom of the pit. All fired at its exposed tail end till it roared and crawled in its hole and wouldnt come out. Callum lowered down a chunk of dead savageds flesh bathed in Juggs the slugs narco milk. Drugged theant lion and managed to finish it off. Found some eggs and other corpses with various loot including a flintlock pistol.
 
Searched area and found a spider lair that vanity had seen from his powers where the dead savages had used also. Climbed up and set fire to web driving out spider and killed it after a fight. Morlock took the brunt and shrugged of the venom. He was a bit sad he lived.
 
Found a vault door where Lolz had lost his friends and died trying to open. Callum opened and found a mummified priest of Colossus with a holy symbol which could store priest spells. He spent his healing prayers then the party locked themselves in to rest. Zombies battered the door but the mighty vault held. In morning priest announced he had doubled his healing prayers. Party set off and headed for centre where zombies were coming from. A huge rail station was found or god’s barn of the metal beasts as natives called it. In the great tunnel they found a mighty stair case with zombies coming at them. The priest turned some and the rest were easy prey. Could hear strange soft lisping chants and crept up silently. Saw a huge bearded wizard snake in a magic circle raising zombies. Hoping to stop it Callum backstabbed the 3 foot thick beast and the rest charged. All rained fury on the beast but the spell went off with a dozen zombies joining the fray. Raged on for a while and many would have died but the priest managed to heal many party members mid fight, returning them to the fray.  Eventually the evil beast was killed and the last zombie fell.  
 
Chopped off its head and found its huge book. Found many trinkets including remains of a dead angel in the snake dungheap. With him was a holy chainsaw that ran on holy water and could do terrible damage to undead. Was platinum and covered with holy etchings. Awed by this the party returned home. Trained up for a week. Callum learned to inflict critical wounds on a natural 20 and improved his spotting skills as so useful. Vanity improved his martial arts and learned sacred art of verbal abuse. Went on to Bard school in the forest and crossed the desert to temple of Colossus where Mondd was welcomed back with the lost holy symbol.
 
All bonkers fun and enjoyable. May get one or two more sessions and proves I can run 1st level on Psychon from start which I didn’t think was possible earlier. Another session on sat and possibly a third.

Tuesday 24 December 2013

d200 Random Crap found outdoors on Psychon

Uncanny  xmas to all - a quickie today in between courses of nosh. These are just some quixotic things to find in dungeons or the wilderness of planet psychon.  Really just strange decor you might find if you just landed in a desert after falling into the Bermuda triangle. Make good landmarks for maps or phenomena near dimensional rifts.

D200 Strange things found on Planet Psychon

1 Vending machine with food, drinks or cigarettes
2 Petrol Bowser with limited AI
3 ATM machine with limited AI
4 Double decker bus
5 Crashed WW2 Hellcat fighter
6 Sentient crystal monolith
7 Sentient bomb wants help to detonate
8 Treasure chest, actually a mimic
9 Possibly functioning Cryopod
10 Unconscious huge creature with brain eating parasite throbbing on head
11 Meth Lab in a tent with dead bodies
12 Teleporter booth
13 Live brain in a life support pod
14 Steam engine with fire elemental inside
15 Huge bottle with water elemental
16 Air raid siren on tower
17 Well with madness inducing water
18 One armed bandit with limited AI
19 Half a bridge
20 Dimensional portal
21 Mountain of plush toys
22 House made of candy or gingerbread
23 Taxi cab (London or New York)
24 Neon motel sign (no vacancy)
25 Jukebox from specific era
26 Love tester machine
27 Hatstand with 1d6 hats
28 Dead dragon, best bits taken
29 Bronze statue from town square
30 Bathtub with pink rings
31 Kitchen sink full of dishes
32 Slave sale post with manacles
33 Picnic table with food
34 Fireplace and stack of logs
35 Stage from shopping mall
37 Hotdog caravan or shack
38 Icecream truck
39 Geyser erupts foodstuff
40 Baseball diamond
41 Tenpin bowling set
42 Air hockey table
43 Space invader or pacman machine
44 Model T-ford possessed by female spirit
45 Burning crashed flying Saucer
46 Huge nest of eggs
47 Dinosaur Skeleton
48 Shop mannequins
49 Coffin
50 Huge diamond, weighs over a ton
51 Giant size skull
52 Upside down tree
53 Flaming pit of burning gas
54 Wheelchair
55 Obscene cactus
56 Crucified crying clown
58 Crashed satellite
59 Crashed mecha with dead pilot
60 Forklift
61 Dodgem car
62 Sailing boat
63 Grey alien trapped in giant block of amber
64 Huge mound of mostly burned holy or magic books
65 Broken golem still twitching
66 Pile of illusionary fairy gold
67 Display case with butterfly collection
68 Parrot on a perch, talks of pirate booty
69 Broken robot horse
70 Maypole
71 Altar covered in blood
72 Sea mine covered in seaweed
74 Minefield
75 Barrels of toxic waste
76 Gargantuan foot prints
77 Huge demon head with open mouth
78 Television set with random pictures
79 Radio tower
80 Windmill
81 Stuffed polar bear
82 Roulette wheel table
83 Keg of beer with tap and liquor table
84 Mechanical bull
85 Shooting target
86 Broken howitzer
87 Trebuchet
88 Table tennis table
89 Easter Island stone head
90 Stone monolith with carvings of ancient civilization
91 Talking magic mirror
92 Half buried computer work station
94 Stripper pole and podium
95 Dungeon torture equipment (wrack, iron maiden)
96 Gibbet with spacesuit wearing skeleton
97 Pyramid stack of rotting skulls
98 Stone jars with alien embryos
99 Bronze statue from ancient town centre
100 Huge mound of ancient garbage
101 Sizzling bbq
102 Fibreglass t-rex slippery dip
103 Waterslide
104 Cargo container full of dead fish
105 Huge solar panel
106 Fruit stall
107 Wrecked and burned out tanks
108 Giant jack o lantern patch
109 Pylon with crystalline weather control panel inside
110 Small fishing  boat
111 Giant concrete pineapple with observation area on top
112 Stone megalithic circle
113 Flaming pit full of salamanders
114 Dead whale
115 Dead Kaiju
116 Ruined titanic robot
117 Stunt ramp for vehicle jumps
118 Giant smashed pumpkin harnessed to dead giant rats
119 Remains of massive witch burning
120 Huge statue of beastman philosopher
121 Alien monolith
122 Huge mass of gelatinous honeycomb slime from dead skybeast
123 Hundreds of huge jellyfish
124 Pile of wrecked cars
125 Burning car
126 Mound of burning tyres
127 Huge pit full of corpses
128 Huge patch of giant magic mushrooms
129 Huge rotting sauropod dinosaur corpse riddled with giant worms or goblins
130 Giant magical or alien diagrams drawn in ground
131 Crashed bomber with live bomb inside
132 Frozen swordfish
133 Thousands of dead birds
134 Burning micropile reactor
135 Four story wickerman filled with animals for sacrificial burning
136 Crystal pyramid 30 foot tall
137 Rusted old crane
138 Dozens of impaled humans
139 Gallows with dead body
140 Executioners chopping block
141 Huge block of ice with frozen troll
142 Princess sleeping in crystal coffin
143 Platform with huge gong
144 Navigation buoy with flashing light
145 Burned out giant mechanical spider
146 Wizard trapped in stasis field
147 Outdoor abattoir with hanging rotten carcasses
148 Freshly burned out huts
149 Several hundred concrete garden gnomes
150 Huge clockwork ornithopter shaped as a bird with dead sorceress inside
151 Dead giant corpse
152 Sleeping behemoth in magical slumber
153 30 foot long coffin with giant skeleton
154 Gigantic jack in the box
155 Several tons of glitter in a heap
156 Humanoid statues of crystal with looks of terror
157 Dead nazi gorilla holding saw, blocks of ice with corpses inside, some cut in slices
158 Tar pit filled with thousands of ancient corpses
159 Wrecked chariots and beheaded corpses and headless beasts in harnesses
160 Wrecked train
161 Payphone may contact a deity briefly
162 Horrible monolith dedicated to elder gods causes nightmares sleep after seeing
163 Ash silhouettes of many vaporised people
164 Drum Kit
165 Levitating boulder with anti gravity properties
166 Meteorite in smoking crater of pure quality steel
167 Glowing meteorite in old crater with dead plants around it
168 Chained triffids with stings cut off
169 Melting snow men and igloo
170 Boxing ring
171 Huge locked cage full of skeletons
172 Crashed cargo plane full of crates
173 Barrels with crying imprisoned goblin children
174 Huge coiled sleeping snake next to a wizards hat
175 Gigantic cacoon size of a bus
176 Broadcast electrical and com tower
177 Greenhouse filled with magical narcotics
178 Water tank with weeping mermaid inside
179 Tent with weird distorting carnival mirrors
180 Pram with crying baby of the ancients
181 Shopping trolley full of ancient packaged groceries
182 Huge alchemical apparatus with chromatic hydra growing inside
183 Blocks of ice with frozen cave man or alien inside
184 Garden shed with potted baby carnivorous plants inside
185 Small lighthouse
186 Burning pile of spell books
187 Tattered page scraps from blasphemous cult book of the old ones
188 Shack full of corpses of suicide cult
189 Cauldron of soup on fire
190 Graveyard with all graves empty as if inhabitants burst free and escaped
191 Tiny shack with huge blazing stove and caged children in basement
192 Fountain with running water
194 Lamp post
195 Wardrobe with entry to pocket dimension
196 Instant Photo booth
197 Bee hives with genetically modified bees that make magic honey
198 Giant sunflowers with human faces that sing
199 Idiotic babbling golems made from flower pots
200 Smoking monkey with fez chained to functional toilet

Laptop charger left in Sydney so this from a tablet. My editing and layout projects on hold dam.



Monday 16 December 2013

Xmas holidays and new year of d100 dungeon stuffers

About to return to old country to hang with friends and family (Adelaide). Less online time but plenty of time to revise and edit my rule sets and start proper lay out versions.

This lists some of the projects im dabbling with while traveling. Net access will be poor, staying indoors out of heat as much as possible and getting more time with friends than i thought so feeling better. Leave early in morning and about to start packing and prepping for trip.

Uncanny xmas and new year to you all your family and friends

Campaign Goals
Run some tsr marvel - need a source book to give mood for setting
Run some long stairs dnd
Run some cthulhu vs vikings have lots of products for this
Run space opera dnd or cthulhu in space
Run a low level horror version of my DnD exile island
Planet Psychon from 1st level
While keeping good things about sandbox more story and plot to bind together
Player background to drive story and give goals, imbed in setting more
Late Next year BRP BABYLON (superworld cthulhu and more decopunk metropolis)

Book Projects 

Have more offers of editorial help so hope to get some action on these...
Redbrick dungeon zone (last few read overs and layout art done but bit of cleaning)
- also read for removing monsters "wizards" dont share legally (applies to most of this stuff)
- have got 6 months of play from this one
Revised version of EM0 DND v3 for sharing, art done, needs re edit and layout
- would like some players to help me edit too and especially offer spell revisions
Planet Psychon Intro Adventure (Just needs art for ID cards and a few hours work)
Planet Psychon Weird Science (needs mutation tables, classes, and layout - have art) 
Gothic Dungeon Zone is ongoing well into April

To Do List Update

d100 Tragedy table - haunting covered some ideas for this too
d100 Random Strange Crypt Table
d100 Non Corporeal Undead Encounters
d100 Corporeal Undead Encounters
d100 Doomed Immortals Encounters
d100 Wandering holy folk, hermits and hunters of unholy
d100 Strange Graveyards - Found notes on "holiness factor" for grave areas
d100 megalith sites - remains of the old ways  
d100 undead boss monsters - might do sub-bosses also  
d100 catacomb and Gothic decor
d100 alluring strange headstones
d100 Madness table for failed WIS checks vs horror, tragedy or shock
d100 Secret Societies
d100 honest undead motivations
d100 evil kids
d100 witches

d100 madmen and their monsters
d100 golems
d100 salty semen of shadel port
d100 dirty deals from the red light quarter
d100 Elemental relics with corruption fx
d100 Law/chaos/elven/cthonic and other relics with corruption fx

d100 diseases
d100 poisons
d100 drugs
d100 herbs
d100 mushrooms
monster tables
Castle Geomorphs - keep and wall and tower section
Manor Geomorphs - a few mansions for haunting and tragic nobility
Crypt and tomb - lots of small funeral structures
Ruin Geomorphs
Catacomb Geomorphs - create a maze of tunnels
Mausoleum Geomorphs - this will be basic one
Cathedral geomorphs
Changelings and Giants


Upcomming Psychon Stuff
Elder Gods and pre human horror
Mutations - have done some more work on this massive project
Mutant characters class
Robots and synthetic characters class
Spaceman characters class?
Organizations and other creeds of psychon...

Saturday 14 December 2013

d100 Magic Dungeon Pies

Magic pies are mostly found on strange fair days or when fairy world closer, or in empty rooms somewhere in the dungeon dimension or left by trickster baking gods. May come in box of d12 remaining. Usual a hand size snack type pie but others possible.

In the dungeon dimension pies appear on plinths in rooms, in chests or rooms which always have a magic pie in them. Sometimes the pie resembles a favorite one character had as a child making them all sentimental. Pies can be bad but some are good enough that even those who have had a bad experience are tempted. A evil self aware dungeon might contrive to destroy your supplies before finding one of these.

d12 signs it is a magic pie

1 Says its magic on box, or plate or with pastry letters on top
2 Candle on top never goes out
3 Pie remains fresh and warm and vermin free until eaten
4 Glowing magic rune or sigil or glyph or demon mark on top
5 Save on sight or eat immediate, multiple victims will fight for pie
6 Hear evil laughter and thunderclap when eaten
7 Pie quivers in anticipation of being eaten
8 When box opened hear angelic choir sing a note designating pies as awesome
9 Invites you to eat it with magical mouth on crust
10 Pie keeps teleporting in front of you 1d6 times if ignored
11 Magical sparkles glimmer around it occasionaly
12 Glowing throbbing breathing pie stops if spotted, seems normal if checked closer (roll again)

d100 Magic Dungeon Pies

01 Turns eater into stack of scattering blackbirds
02 Turns eater into magical talking toad
03 Sleep d100 years
04 Fireball explodes if crust penetrated
05 Giant centipede jumps into your face and bite it
06 After eating vomit up a swarm of live rats or bats or bugs that attack you
07 Turn into a living buzzing insect hive colony being
08 Turn into an orc
09 Turn into a troll
10 Change alignment one step
11 +1 STR
12 +1 CON
13 +1 DEX
14 +1 CHA
15 Cure disease
16 Delicious but infects with awful disease or parasites
17 Fruit pie save or a fruit tree grows inside you to full size
18 Poison pie tastes delicious and very tempting
19 Stone pie turns eater to stone
20 Cure poison
21 +1 Move
22 Polymorphic pie can make eater change to any normal living being once
23 Change gender
24 Dinosaur pie infects with presence of the primordial dino devil
25 Flame breath 3d6 for a turn after eating all
26 Purge possessed spirits if eaten
27 If you get close elder spawn horror jumps out and impregnates them by face hugging
28 Person bursts into flames then is reincarnated from ashes
29 Pie eater is possessed by a spirit from something in pie
30 Able to see into spirit world for a day
31 Prophetic dreams from the gods
32 Turn into magic pie just like this one
33 If opened or bitten a demon bird soars out then tries to kill everyone
34 An imp jumps out and yells: "surprise!". Turns invisible and torments the eater
35 Never need to eat again as pie keeps slowly growing inside guts
36 Before can be sampled a decomposing arm bursts out and tries to choke or crush anyone
37 As go to bite kitten cries heard, inside are  a d6 healthy kittens
38 Eat it and turn into a pig
39 Grow 6 inches taller
40 Skin changes to bright colour not normally found in humans
41 Pie full of semiprecious gems
42 Eater becomes exceedingly delicious to taste
43 Snake in a pie!, venomous angry snake bursts out if bitten or cut
44 Full of platinum coins in delicious gravy
45 Can detect treasure for 1d4 hours
46 Demonic parasites explode from your intestines CON save, die or injured if live
47 Gain night vision permanently
48 Ticks, mosquitoes, flies, leeches, fleas, any parasites think you taste foul (even giant ones)
49 You give birth to lovely child clone of yourself the next day
50 Have the ability to lay one egg a day
51 Age 1/5th normal speed from now on
52 Magically slow and do everything at half speed for 1d4 days
53 Magically fastand do everything at double speed for 1d4 days
54 Can tell bad magic pies from good ones (Y or N only)
55 Develop bat like sonar from this magic bat pie
56 Develop ability to hold breathe CON rounds with this magic frog pie
57 Ability to speak to rats with this magic rat pie
58 Can vomit up a stinking cloud in a 30 foot cone once a day
59 Skin glows in the dark
60 Can summon 4 more magic pies all of different types once like a one use spell
61  Pie complains and sprouts eyes and arms and legs, is now your familiar
62 Goes into trance and can speak to one dead person for a while
63 Can vomit up delicious gravy at will, makes anything taste great to non vegetarians
64 Gain 1d6 x10 pounds weight, can lose as normal over a few months
65 Pie ghost appears and abuses you for 1d4 days criticizing everything you do
66 Every bite is a different flavour and delicious, first half savoury, second half desert
67 May only eat food if in a pie pastry crust
68 Pie makes you aware on first taste is explosive, 5d6 damage in 10 foot radius circle if thrown
69 Pie makes you aware on first taste is deadly acidic cream, d4 damage for a 2d6 rounds
70 Pie makes you aware on first taste is explosive web pie like a web spell
71 Elemental critter bursts out begging for mercy, your new intelligent magic pet
72 Gives you a vision of your one true love somewhere in world
73 Anything bites you makes a CON save vs poison or will not bite you again
74 When pie crust broken a splendid table cloth, serving vessels and magnificent feast unfurl
75 Temporarily may commune with mysterious spirit of the dungeon briefly, toys with mortals
76 Detect traps for 1d4 hours
77 Take no fall damage, always land on feet
78 May turn Undead once as a 10th level priest after eating when needed
79 Commune with spirits of animals in pie, WIS save or become vegetarian
80 Hair grows down to feet, coloured exotically
81 Clothes or armour turns into fabulous robes fit for a king
82 Can cast a first level arcane spell once per day
83 Can cast a first level nature spell once per day
84 Can cast a first level divine spell once per day
85 Can cast a first level mentalist spell once per day
86 Skin turns metallic (gold, silver, bronze, iron) +1 AC
87 Your teeth are constantly replaced by shiny new ones like a shark
88 A magical worm in your stomach protects you from all food poisoning or digestive tract parasites
89 Turn into undead being
90 Turn into an elf
91 Turn into a dwarf
92 Turn into a beastman
93 Turn into a halfling
94 Turn into a fish
95 Turn into newt
96 Turn into a sheep
97 Return to youth age restored to 3d6 years
98 Do not age anymore
99 Require +1 weapons to harm you
100 Raises you one level instantly

Perhaps a villain could dare you to eat pies in a deadly contest

Friday 13 December 2013

d100 Dungeon Decor Table: Rooms

D100 decorator to turn rooms into horror chambers that scare players crapless or make them wonder why would any mad wizard make this or why would a monster do this. Room could mean a open area or several adjacent rooms.

You might up the anti by making magically hostile trap versions or spreading over the dungeon.

They should make party think they are possibly important or a trap. Some not quite right for whole dungeon. To be fair I think dungeon distractions could be a title too but they could be used as brainstorming kickstarters. Just use when room sweeping getting monotonous.

d100 Dungeon Decor Table: Rooms

01 Area covered in gelatinous slime mould like growth
02 Area covered in toadstools
03 Fleas and rat feces and garbage
04 Straw or sawdust freshly covered area or old and stinky
05 Burned charcoal, ash, charred bones and other scraps
06 Large hanging oil lamps, very well illuminated
07 Former abandoned campsite of adventurers or monsters
08 Severed hands scattered about over area
09 Freshly slaughtered rival party corpses, stripped, throats slit
10 Near dead villager, bandit or militiaman has been tortured
11 Graffiti piece or mural by a dungeon faction declaring they are best
12 Zombie nailed to walls or floor
13 Repulsive rotten pile of stolen vegetables crawling with bugs and mould
14 Chains holding prisoner manacled to wall desperate for water, possibly blind
15 Fireplace with spit roast human corpse mostly eaten and charred
16 Blood covered altar with fresh blood and gizzard train
17 Sarcophagi with mummified corpse, ancient armour and weapons (or use my Gothic tables)
18 Suits of armour by doorway in old fashioned styles
19 Weapons and shields mounted on walls with dated coats of arms
20 Tapestry with epic awe inspiring scene from history or religion
21 Barrels or boxes stacked everywhere
22 Racks of armour and weapons
23 Torture equipment and executioner tools on display
24 Huge relief faces carved into walls with open mouths
25 Stone gargoyles on plinths
26 Statue of a god, hero or demon with semiprecious stones for eyes
27 Shrine to minor divinity, spirits or ancestors with minor sacrifices
28 Copper coins neat stacked or scattered everywhere amidst dungeon dung
29 Glittering slime trails everywhere from some creature
30 Creature nests with bundled straw and garbage and feathers and bones
31 Chalk drawing map on wall with markings
32 Crude board game on table or pieces and board scattered
33 Built boxes, chains and bowls for pets of some kind currently elsewhere
34 Sewerage everywhere, slippery and foul
35 Blood spattered everywhere
36 Cobwebs covering everything
37 Giant spider webbing, sticky if fail save, husks of dead victims
38 Giant eggs or egg sack
39 Huge cocoons of some kind of creature
40 Paralysed victims being eaten alive by grubs
41 Goods and clothes with just organic slime inside
42 Bodies covered in plague pustules and buboes
43 Dead choked men drunk some kind of poison or gassed
44 Someone cooking nearby something smells good
45 Table with a tray of pies or cakes
46 Patch of shrieking fungus and giant toadstools
47 Crack in ground leads to ancient buried monster nest
48 Hole in wall big enough to squeeze through dub by some creature
49 Open pits with poison stakes and limited walkways and bridges
50 Open pits with lava and limited walkways and bridges
51 Choking smoke from vent makes visibility and breathing difficult
52 Wall or ceiling heavily dripping and bulging with pressure
53 Crystalline growth on stuff, some sparkly
54 Shaft or vent or chimney to surface, too small for adult
55 Hair and nail clippings and dirty wash water from dungeon annual delousing day
56 Evidence of summoning like sacrifices, chalk circles and incense
57 Collections of dead body and skeletal body parts sorted by size and condition
58 Dirty coffins with partially eaten corpses inside
59 Huge stone block with arms and feet sticking out
60 Pit with dead party in bottom and something eating them
61 Pile of human skulls or severed heads
62 Slave gang hard at work terrified of any trouble, broken and wretched
63 Horribly mutilated corps, "adventurers" out carved into chest
64 Unconscious human child in state of shock
65 Unconscious villager, hysterically screams
66 Witch child claims was kidnapped not exchanged in a deal
67 Plague carrier badly injured
68 Poisonous food and drink left out on table
69 Caltrops everywhere amid rubbish on floor
70 Rat swarm covering gnawing at a corpse
71 Rats chewing scrap of rope staked by a deep pit, adventurers bags nearby
72 Adventurers hidden stash behind illusionary wall
73 Illusionary pit trap
74 A pair of boots with feet still in them
75 Great pellet of human and monster bones (like what owls cough up)
76 Flailed skins of adventurers nailed to walls
77 Poison nails place amid trash on floor
78 Deadfall traps place over doorways, skeleton inside
79 Harmless phantom appears to try scare party
80 Poltergeist is enraged and attacks
81 Mould or slime covered dank room
82 Crumbling hole in wall reveals sealed chamber
83 Room doors staked and barred, starved thief inside
84 Feral dungeon dogs might be tamed with food
85 Mule with adventurers bags eating straw or possibly whining
86 Rabbit burrows enter room and fluffy tasty cowards flee
87 A pond, giant toad or two live here
88 A font with a minor elemental spirit of water, possibly hostile
89 Rust monster tied to wooden beam looks hungry
90 Cave ape, bear or giant wolf chained up so passing it difficult
91 Sleeping ogre on a temporary nest having a sly nap
92 Human butchered hanging from meat hooks, worm ridden
93 Supernatural being imprisoned in magical restraint
94 Gremlins having a party, if see you flee and stalk for later
95 Peasant man impaled on a 10 foot pole still dying, thinks your his party
96 Man, dwarf or elf staked to wall with iron spikes, still living
97 Badly wounded priest or wizard with hands and tongue cut off
98 Mirror with entry to pocket dimension with trapped demon
99 Painting with pocket dimension to eternally repeating scene
100 Table with battle plans to attack parties campsite and freshly emptied beers

Thursday 12 December 2013

d100 Post crash space hab modules 1

So your orbital space habitat, asteroid colony, moon city, operational space hulk section, or generational starship needs a isolated civilization trapped in a habitat module possibly backwards for hundreds of years. I have done bunkers for post apoc games and Psychon could do this too but now my game is in the domain of TV serial Star Lost, movie Pandorum, rpg Metamorphosis Alpha and book Non-Stop by Aldiss. This will be handy. Once again like Dr who many contained a failed utopia who have failed to grow and are on the brink of transformation or destruction. Sky raider traveler modules by FASA reprint would be awesome - had geomorphs for huge asteroid hab with modules one of best Traveller products ever. Had Geomorphs. I wanna design some space geomorphs one day. You could use these for domed cities, in gammaworld or some post apoc setting im sure.

Post crash space hab modules 1 features urban type

Post crash space hab modules 2 features eco type
Post crash space hab modules 1 features industrial type
Then do mega space structure infrastructural tables 
d100 whats wrong with my bunker? - could be handy
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/gamma-aeon-tourist-beareau.html


Some all city with machines making food and air, others garden cities or surrounded by wilderness.  Eco habs more about preserving wilderness. Industrial more about manufacturing and ship systems

d100 Post crash space hab modules: Urban Module

01 Agro dome with levels of factory farm with top layer replicating archaic agricultural community. Often religious and backward, unaware of outside the hab module.
02 Warlike aggressive martial law big brother state stockpiling weapons, sealed inside and highly paranoid. Assume all strangers from place just like them. Military borgs.
03 Ruined city with handful of survivors hiding from diseased sex mad mutant hordes, use drugs to maintain humanity, hostile AI God keeps people trapped and promises better place
04 Ruined city with handful of survivors hiding from undead necrovirused zombies. Uncontaminated fight constant battle seeking food,weapons and escape from quarantine
05 Garden city overgrown with triffids, pod people, vegepigmies and killer plant consciousness. Humans may hide in subworlds and maintenance levels underneath.
06 Royalist feudal state at first welcoming then threatened by strangers existence and cultural impact. Eventually lords turn and imprison and interrogate aliens.
07 City habitat fighting machines and mad AI god. AI wants to infect outside systems, locals trying to kill it and minions. Served by cyborg clones, warborgs, robot mecha and androids
08 Civilization of androids seem human at first then reveal truth. Seek humans to study and keep in menagerie with other specimen for life. Androids seek to mimic humans more
09 Gigantic mental hospital with therapy AIs, medical and security bots and android staff. Possibly some human clone staff. Thinks all intruders are mental hospital.
10 Huge cryobank with tens of thousands of people in stasis with order of religious people who worship them as sacred ancients and keep them in stasis
11 Huge cryobank with tens of thousands of people in stasis with degenerate feral cannibal mutants living off the pods and intruders. If learn of escape they will try to escape.
12 Huge cryobank with tens of thousands of transhumanoids who have uplifted selves into amoral supermen. If freed will enslave intruders and begin to unfreeze their kin for war.
13 While most in section are mutant cavemen who worship tech, elites remain hidden and harvest cavemen for organs in the guise of gods and ritual sacrifice. They live in luxury
14 Module is simulation and educational facility that runs events with androids and faked sections of the ship such as the bridge, labs, classrooms, lecture theatres, to teach clones
15 Module ruled by children with protective AI's. They are curious about adults but may change their minds, have been preserved as tweens and kids since the system crash
16 Module of ruined city ruled by rival youth gangs who kill adults if possible who caused the crash. Constantly running system down with war, some not so bad seek peace.
17 City of drugged pleasure watched by AI who sends death squads to execute trouble makers or elderly or defective humans. Squads human, android or robot.
18 Medical and hospital hab with governing AI, androids and medical robots. Automated thinklabs try to recover human DNA, cure plagues and save humanity by dissecting visitors
19 Insane cult of occult cannibal killers seek to kill eat and abuse outsiders and last few non members left in ruined city hab. Possibly worship mad AI s a demon god.
20 Small community in rebuilt garden city have evolved Psionics and remain quite advanced but they feel superior and patronizingly seek to help other humans without talents
21 Remains of huge automated prison complex with huge yards, thousands of cells, security borgs and androids, and frozen criminals in sub levels. Crazed inmates are cannibal killers
22 Megacity of overpopulated strained resources with absolute law police force who kill criminals mostly on sight. Justice AI assists the law and provides them with weapons
23 Garden city where back to nature nudists, hippies and pagans dwell in wilderness with alternative wind and bicycle technology, not prepared to face threats or violence
24 Few human left play VR games in pods and think they are godlike beings in various fantasy worlds. AI needs guest players to get them to come out
25 Ruined city with wilderness where tech shunning aggressive religious community protect folk from advanced technology by keeping backwards. Burn tech users as witches
26 Huge fat people constantly eating, actually having blubber symbiotic bio suits milked of nutrient by machines. Fatties graze like simple cattle watching tv with food tubes, cant walk
27 Decadant city dwelling minority served by robots planning a revolt, intruders make them step up and start murders and plant evidence blaming outsiders
28 City controlled by gangsters who rule by force and compete with other senior gangs, each with own leading technology and field of expertise, outsiders are recruited for intrigue
29 Floating Atlantean utopia on sea farm served by homo mermanus slave workers and dolphins who are planning revolt with other aquatic slave races
30 Ruined city with mutant warlords struggling for domination and superior weapons,many hate normal humans and hunt them. Use salvaged tech with religious awe for ancients
31 Citizens secretly farmed for food by other species that has learned to control city system, live in ignorant utopia, harvested at 18 by machines - space wasps, mutants or beastmen
32 City hab ruled by mad AI in fear of communist and mutant or psionic infiltration, suspicious outsiders are spies, peopled by simple clones willing to live in fear
33 City hab uses subhuman worker caste such as androids, beastmen (ape, pig, dog?), mutants, clones, slaves or some other prejudice, ripe for revolution 
34 Locals kept under control by medical state who claim population infected and require constant treatment and obedience, death squads hunt rebels and outsiders
35 Machines carry on in city and humans outside live in primitive state in forest parklands, Some machines wary of organics, others acy as gods for humans and aid them 
36 Economically struggling community with super rich elites, military testing genetic clone, replicant and animen troops to control populace who resist order or filthy ruin shantytowns
37 Tribal barbarians in wilderness raid ruined mutant filled city for for magic relics and glory and pretty unmutated slaves found in the secret science caverns beneath the ruins
38 Mutants, metahumans and/or psionics act as defenders and heroes for the common folk who struggle to grow food the parklands of the city ruin, Some good, some mad some bad
39 Community ruled by democratic government but all elected under control of an AI, Mutant, clonemaster, psionic dominators, pod plant people or androids
40 Former theme park module with with mutants, animen, androids living in land of wonder and wackiness. Locals deeply religious about history and amazing (and deadly) monuments
41 Beastmen rule and building own civilization with human slave. May be at war with city mutants, zombies, robots or rebel humans
42 Wonderland of eloi living in city of pleasure with horrible morlocks in sub technical level who come out to pick victims to eat. Locals drugged and clueless hedonists
43 Fabulous garden, nude humans feast, frolic and fornicate like beasts and are cared for by androids and robots. AI provides them with new sensations, smells and pleasures
44 Most of population live in prison camp conditions by minority who are well armed and possibly aided by uplifted beasts, animen, androids, robotics, psionics or mutants
45 A university habitat with staff and students engaged in research and study of ancients, sciences, nature and other noble fields. Ruled by council of most acclaimed oligarchs
46 Regimented cast system of professions and rank administered by AI. Uses cloning to keep population static, recycling same people mostly. Outsiders make locals wary
47 Cyborgs bound to AI god prepare for war and conquest, training in infiltration in simulated village in own base or actually in process of infiltration and invasion of locals
48 Fungoid, macrobic, slimey, oozy gelatinous horrors overun complex converting locals to own matter. Horrid twitching slime jungles with last humans in city shelters
49 Humans persecuting minority or nonhumans actually being controlled by them in secret to manage city dwelling humans
50 Hunter gatherers graze across overgrown jungle in garden city with feral animals and giant bugs to due to hyper evolving and giganticism mutations, worship tech and seek god
51 Primitives in fear if infiltration practice self mutilation and practicerituals. Failure to act properly results in a witch hunt. Hunt muties in the ruined cities
52 Hab intact and humanless with friendly AI that wants to be your friend. Lures in and locks visitors inside and works on extermination. May even include other synthetic life
53 Zoo habitat with liveinhabs for staff and many mini ecozones,with tech sub levels for housing, labs, animal hospital, DNA storage and clone lab. all treated as animals by AI
54 Alien occupation or infestation, possible evidenceoflong tampering. Simple residents ignorance and fearful of aliens who live in rocks and the sky, aliens kept backwards
55 Alien walkers fit pacifier caps to wicked and fight rebels, they keep humans backwards and obedient with huge tripod mecha, vampire octopi inside like to drink human blood
56 Robots serve the AI god acting as his chaplains. Human serve the gods and obey priests. Use threat of unclean mutants to alarm humans
57 Military industrial complex ruled by fear of war and fake threats of contamination to oppress and contain locals, constant propaganda of fear and nationalism
58 Aliens using mostly uninhabited city as a base, park their ship here, possibly damaged, set up labs, prison camps and clone factories. Hostile to intruders or being discovered
59 Aliens infiltrating city hab act as secret power behind the leaders or use hybrids to dominate humans who are recovering from the disaster. Aliens suspicious of outsiders
60 Monastic cult live in superstitious cloistered citadel, wary of outsider heretics who may be mutants or worse. Some one gender and use cloning vats, some quite martial
61 Local warlord seeks to capture people to repair crumbling weapons and vehicles, some try charm at first but basically bully's seeking glory and power, often unstable and paranoid
62 Local wizards rule ruins with technology, psionics or mutations. The locals are backward and live in fear of the wizards and their supernatural powers
63 A scientific technocracy is at war with barbarism and ignorance and use superior technology to great advantage. Have agents investigating targets to liberate
64 Sentient necrovirus undead such as vampires or some alien force creates an aristocracy and rules ignorant locals. May keep them primitive and easliy manipulated as slave cattle
65 A industrial worker complex with factories on low levels and elites in management section growing more decadent, may have backward technology like decopunk era
66 Haughty superior supermen or mutants study intruders and get idea to enslave outside world from intruders. A few progressive ones might aid escapees.
67 Drugs used by rulers or gangs or AI or Morlocks to enslave population with blissed out delusions, used as food, spare parts, concubines, neural peptides or other uses
68 Tribal hunter gatherers living in ruined city with megafauna worshiping rival AI's with sacrifice and ritual, superstitious awe of strangers from beyond who could be from the gods
69 People in city live in fear of swarms of some hostile organism, they devote much time to countering them and not going forward, authorities use necessity to control society
70 Plague city where disease or mutation or zombies killed most people leaving area looking sterile while last humans in hiding tend to shoot strangers, moving backwards
71 People have come to live simple life and toil in city parklands for food. Automated reactor claxon sounds daily, with more frequency is misinterpreted as well done message from god
72 Feral post crash urbanites fight for status in gladiator arenas, strangers always popular and machine gods create monsters for battle, public made passive by brutal entertainment
73 City of advanced industrial dystopia with android or animen or slave rebellion imminent. Desperate authorities becoming more brutal and only making things worse
74 Training habitat with copies of ship systems for training, locals believe they are operating whole complex just following AI simulated lessons,
75 Industrial hab crawling with eco system of machines gone feral, robot tribes snub humans as weakest tribe and snub them, humans believe they are unatural beings
76 Religious and racist religion rules with inquisitors, witch hunters and templars, superstitious to machines. Hate aliens, racially impure, mutants pr psionics
77 Population enslaved by mindhack virus controlled by AI but possibly has gone feral and developed own agenda. Cold and ruthless in desire to spread
78 Filthy degenerates dwell in service levels kidnapping and eating visitors and local citizens slowly diminishing in numbers, society stood still live in fear of the people in walls
79 City ruled by gangsters and corporations, polluted and contaminated people use cyborging tech and organ legging to maintain health, robots common
80 Primitives worship automated city systems and sacrifice to them with bloody state religion. AI and robots and androids or cyborgs are possible priest and warrior castes
81 Library hab centre for scholarship and learning with museum, real books, classrooms, research labs and residencies. Order of scholars and AI protect data from thieves
82 Population of feral survey team obey AI god who speaks to seamen and demands sacrifices of strangers. Ruined city forbidden zone where AI elite serve it directly
83 Polluted industrial city hab with small population living amid automated machines who eat rats and eat mana of machine gods, dying desperate people fighting each other
84 Feral teens fed by AI roam ruins as gangs and if accepted are allowed to live in paradise like city as adults. AI death squads hunt enemies of order or elderly
85 Over populated industrial hab with AI and law officers the ruling powers. Viscous gangs in slums run riot and extreme lawmen execute on the street
86 Highly bureaucratic admin and logistics hab most population admin caste pen pushers, working classes have some rebellious factions but secret police take care of them mostly
87 A synthetic colourful forest with music, fuzzy animal like friendly androids and candy growing on trees, a giant hab for infants and small children, now full of hedonistic morons
88 Decadent villain keeps city for his elites as a palace with outer wilderness with backward tribes who pay villain and their princes tribute. Roaming with monsters bred to spread fear
89 Colony in hab dying of flesh rotting disease, becoming more and more cyborged, on verge of becoming a new race let by computerized brains in vats bent on conquest
90 Animen of one or more types rule humans as slaved in wilderness area but shun mutant humans dwelling under the war torn city. Animen believe they built everything
91 A primitive feudal colony hab has contact with other habs has called in ambassadors to make deals and alliances. Strangers assumed to be more and presented to king
92 Unpopulated city with hab with frozen citizens and clone vats ready to go but mutants, aliens or mad cult have taken over and are eating frozen chosen ones slowly
93 Training hab with citadel surrounded by various wilderness zones for training. Now has been occupied by tribals in zones threatening more advanced citadel dwellers
94 Alien or mutant biological strain taking over with strange growths and combat organisms while remaining humans try to fight off. Some contaminated humans serve invader
95 Clone dome where AI recreates same people again and again to toil in citadel while ferals in outer wilderness reproduce naturally and now hate the machine
96 A colony of artists and academics toil in university and culture hab but are starved for artistic ideas and inspiration, strangers offer exotic vistas. They are unprepared for hostility
97 Ruined city hab with wilderness believe they are on earth still, various tribes feud over city artifacts each with different tech, some psionic or mutated or cyborgs
98 Intact city believe everything according to plan, AI's hide truth of crash while citizens train and operate useless equipment to keep them busy and feeling useful
99 Uniform wearing facist state emerged wasting resources on weapons while driving people more backwards and harder lives, revolutionaries think strangers here to help
100 Caste society with specialty trades run by AI. Strangers upset moral perfection and system and if dont adapt must be recycled or reprogrammed