Sunday, August 11, 2019

Ortish colony

Garren Styn is a colony town with high walls of stone brick, embellished with gleaming reinforcements of steel and patrolled by numerous guards with firearms and crossbows. The makeshift streets are likewise patrolled, and many of the foreign residents have armed themselves as well. Near the edge of town lies the Bitemark Tower, where Falarth, who is both the town's ruler and captain of the guard, lives.

The Orts are pale, mottled people with long sharp teeth and small round eyes. Their clothing usually leaves the arms bare, especially the upper arms, and fine Ortish dress often comes with elaborate armbands or gloves that go no further than the wrist.

They have come seeking a mythical city of silver, and Falarth currently holds 2d6 Tula captive to interrogate. He secretly harbors a deep fascination with native weapons and battle tactics, but otherwise holds little respect for locals or the land. They will offer a blunderbuss and abundant ammo to anyone who can offer a usable (or convincing enough) map to the mythic city, or a gun can be purchased for around 100 gold.

Besides the soldiers there are a group of merchants led by Sacruul, who do not support Falarth, but hope to profit from the natives being driven away. They plan to build farms in the nearby lands for valuable crops, namely an Ortish drug called blueheart. It is a cactus with heart shaped leaves and a mild numbing toxin which is highly addictive and turns the skin blue. Usually the leaves are cut in half and placed on the upper arm, near the shoulder. Sacruul will usually offer a leaf to newcomers who seem like they could make for reliable customers, but is highly allergic themselves.

Visitors are most welcome at the Red Sails inn, run by a former priest named Millimen. The priests generally have a good grasp of the common languages, unlike the rest of the colonists, but desire to bring converts back to Roaz, the Temple City. Millimen is also a skilled tooth-sharpener.

Encounters

  1. A lone Ortish thief tries to knock down the strongest-looking member of the party, then grab something valuable and run off.
  2. Guards demand the party's purposes in town. Their grasp of common is sorely lacking, but they are well armed.
  3. A foreign priest demands the group 'purify' themselves through either humiliating rituals, hefty donations, or flagellation.
  4. Blueheart addicts offer to sell some of the foreign drug for a high price.
  5. A richly dressed, noble-looking Ort presents the party with a sealed package and tries to hire them to deliver it somewhere, but is impossible to understand without speaking fluent Ortish.
  6. Some soldiers drag a young villager from the local area through the streets. The captive is shouting for help, but none of the Orts respond more than to glance at the noise.

Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Some monsters

Skullhound

HD: 3
Found in/number: dark parts of cities, violent roadways, 1d3

Appearance: as a hairless wolf (or other beast) with dark, translucent flesh and bones sharply visible, almost as if glowing. Similarly, a set of human bones rests in the stomach.
Voice: growling that sounds incongruently human.
Wants: vengeance. To hurt, kill, and die.
Morality: violent
Tactics: aggressive

Defense: 2
Speed: +3
Morale: 8

Attacks
  1. bite or latch: light damage, +2 against prone targets.
  2. flare of spite: medium damage to anyone looking directly at it.
Created when a wolf or other beast eats a person who was consumed with hatred and a desire for revenge. The hound's hair will fall out as its body turns darker and more clear, becoming an undead monster when it vomits its own soul to make room for the hatred.

Ashhand

HD: 5
Found in: the darkest unholy pits.

Appearance: a black hand reaching up from the ground, larger than a person and shedding black dust. Pulls itself ten meters out of the ground to the elbow at half vigor, and then 20 meters to the shoulder at 5 vigor
Voice: dusty cracking and grinding, muted immense roaring from below your feet.
Wants: to grab the holy, slaughter mortals
Morality: blasphemous
Tactics: varied but blind

Defense: 4
Speed: +2 (immobile)
Morale: 6

Attacks
  1. slam: heavy damage.
  2. grab: agility save to avoid. Next round, hard strength save to escape or take 2d6 damage. If it grabs a holy person, it will instead pull them down into the earth and not return.
Nobody knows what the full form of these demons might look like, but even as they are an encounter is always wildly dangerous. It is very flammable but immune to the flames, igniting it will add 1d6 fire damage to each of its attacks.

Thursday, August 1, 2019

Curses as classes

These cannot be unlocked for new characters, and gain no proficiencies, skills, or starting items. Curses can deepen similar to gaining class levels, and replace class levels if they would otherwise exceed the limit of four. They can also be cured by fighting and evading the curse. There's no fourth level so that players can still have classes, but if you want to allow players to become outright monsters, feel free to add that.

Vampire

  • Stat bonus: +1 will, -1 strength per level
  • Deepen: drinking the blood of a living person you haven't already fed on counts as 10 exp.
  • Cure: go 10 intervals without feeding.
  • Signs: fangs, pallid skin, unnatural eyes.
Level 1: burning, bloodthirst
Level 2: drowning, regeneration
Level 3: ageless, hypnotism
  • Burning: sunlight will burn your flesh. In direct sunlight, you take 2d6 damage per round. In open air during daylight, you take 1 damage per round even in shade.
  • Bloodthirst: you must drink blood instead of eating food, regaining 1d6 vigor each time. Whenever you see a suitable victim and have not fed within one day (at level 1)/month (at level 2)/year (at level 3), you must make a will save to avoid attacking them immediately to feed on them. This save is made at a cumulative -1 penalty each interval since you last fed, as well as a -4 if they are bleeding.
  • Drowning: if you enter or knowingly pass over running water, you must make a vigor save each round or lose consciousness.
  • Regeneration: whenever you take a wound, you can turn into mist and return to your coffin or other place of rest, as long as the way is not blocked by airtight barriers. Each hour of rest restores one wound. Only sunlight or a stake through the heart can truly kill you, any other death will simply turn you into mist and return to your coffin, where your body will lie inert for one day before recovering.
  • Ageless: you can live forever, with no need to sleep, breathe, or even feed, though you must still make saves to keep yourself from attacking mortals.
  • Hypnotism: by staring into the eyes of any mortal creature for ten seconds, you can force them to obey a single word command, along with pointing to direct them. You are completely vulnerable to attacks while doing this.

Leprocist

  • Stat bonus: +1 strength, -1 will per level
  • Deepen: attaching the limb of a creature you killed grants 10 exp.
  • Cure: let one body part per leprocist level fall off, and be taken care of for one month. This will not regrow the limbs lost.
  • Signs: decayed skin, mismatched body parts, seams between parts.
Level 1: falling apart, metabolize
Level 2: preservative
Level 3: beyond natural, chaotic anatomy
  • Falling apart: your face, arms, and legs will slowly decay and fall off over the course of a month, but you can replace them. Losing an arm decreases your strength by one, and losing a leg decreases your agility by one. Each limb you take from a creature increases or decreases your strength and agility if the creature was stronger than you or more agile, respectively. Once all of your limbs fall off, your head and torso will begin to take 2d6 damage per day unless fed and cleaned carefully.
  • Metabolize: expend a body part, pushing it past its limits and ripping it apart to add 1d6 to any roll.
  • Preservative: choose one of your body parts to remain intact as long as you have other limbs, similar to your head and torso.
  • Beyond natural: attach additional body parts, including extra heads, up to a total of half your maximum vigor (or 6, whichever is higher).
  • Chaotic anatomy: if each of your body parts is from a different type of creature, they will decay after a year rather than a month.

Midas' Flesh

  • Stat bonus: +1 strength, -1 agility per level
  • Deepen: hoard ten times the normal amount of gold instead of spending it. Stolen or lost money is not deducted, but spent or used money is.
  • Cure: go one month per level without holding any money, except to give away for nothing in return.
  • Signs: golden eyes, golden flesh.
Level 1: personal value, fool's touch
Level 2: weight of riches, gold to anything
Level 3: liquid assets, pure profit
  • Personal value: stop rolling for vigor. Insted, each level of curse roll 1d20 for gold vigor as your body transforms. Each point of gold vigor is worth 10gp if ripped off of you, and if gold is taken from your body it takes a week to recover. You must consume a gold coin for each point of wear you wish to recover, instead of eating and resting normally.
  • Fool's touch: touch an enemy to encase them in pyrite, immobilizing them for 1d6 rounds. Doing this causes you to take 1d6 damage if you've used it before on that day.
  • Weight of riches: your golden body is immensely heavy. Anything weaker than stone will collapse underneath you, you will sink like a rock in any liquid, and it takes at least three people to carry you.
  • Gold to anything: you can change your gold into any mundane metal or stone, though its shape remains the same. It takes about 20gp for each inventory slot of materials.
  • Liquid assets: shoot molten gold from your hand at anyone within ten meters. Deals damage based on how much gold you expend; 1 damage for less than 10gp, 1d6 for 10gp, 2d6 for 100gp, 3d6 for 1000gp, and so on.
  • Pure profit: your body is entirely gold, remove all non-gold vigor, and if you run out you will die and your body will crumble into 2d20 gold coins.

Lycanthrope

  • Stat bonus: +1 agility, -1 will per level
  • Deepen: each person your beast form kills grants 10 exp.
  • Cure: spending a full moon completely restrained and imprisoned counters10 exp.
  • Signs: wild hair and nail growth, hunger for raw meat.
Level 1: full moon, unnatural
Level 2: wilderness within, man or beast
  • Full moon: on any night when the moon is full, you will transform into a powerful beast that goes on a violent rampage, targeting the things you care most about.
  • Unnatural: mundane weapons and attacks cannot kill you, except silver.
  • Wilderness within: you can make a will save to transform regardless of the time. During this time, whenever your beast form kills and eats a creature, you can choose to revert. Gain a cumulative +1 to this save for each night since you last transformed.
  • Man or beast: when you are in beast form, you can make a will save to take control for 1d6 minutes. If people you care about are trying to help, gain +4 to this save.

Wendigo

  • Stat bonus: +1 strength, -1 will per level
  • Deepen: eating a frozen corpse of the same species grants 20 exp.
  • Cure: each night spent without food and out of the cold counters 20 exp
  • Signs: white skin, antlers, claws, unnatural eyes.
Level 1: flesh hunger, frigid phantom
Level 2: starvation, hunt
  • Flesh hunger: whenever you eat a frozen corpse of your species, you regain all vigor and recover one wound.
  • Frozen phantom: gain +4 to stealth when moving through snowy or frozen environments, gain immunity to cold weather and resistance to cold damage. Take double damage from fire, and you must make a will save to approach any fire larger than a candle.
  • Starvation: eat a frozen corpse at least once a week or die.
  • Hunt: you can see in the dark and perfectly mimic any voice you've heard.

Saturday, July 27, 2019

1d100 Character Memories

Still working on my city generator, but this list of character memories is fully filled out, one hundred with no repeats!* Hopefully this will help with generating new characters, especially for players who don't have much experience with roleplaying/writing, and with so many they can roll as many as they want.

*I think

1d100 memories
  1. Parents used to cook a special meal.
  2. Parents punished minor misbehavior with beatings.
  3. Family was an unstable web of distrust and manipulation.
  4. Siblings were always competing to outdo one another.
  5. Grew up with a beloved doll.
  6. Family was killed in war.
  7. Family died of plague.
  8. Parents restricted personal interests.
  9. Parents paid little attention.
  10. Saw a travelling magic show when it stopped in town.
  11. Bullied by other local children.
  12. Had something precious stolen.
  13. Had something valuable stolen.
  14. One of the local children had a memorable quirk.
  15. Played nobility with other children.
  16. Had an imaginary friend.
  17. Encountered magic before adventuring.
  18. Nearly died in an accident.
  19. Ran away from home.
  20. Created a secret language with friends.
  21. Had a tryst with someone from a different class in society.
  22. Attended a royal execution.
  23. Got kidnapped.
  24. Did something incredible, thanks to luck.
  25. Befriended a wild animal.
  26. Parents praised every effort.
  27. A hated pet died.
  28. A beloved pet died.
  29. Got into a really embarrassing accident.
  30. Knew how to play an instrument, but forgot.
  31. Worked at a festival.
  32. Got lost on a trip through the city.
  33. Witnessed a supernatural possession.
  34. Survived a very dangerous accident through luck.
  35. Got saved from a very dangerous accident.
  36. Looked up to a local knight.
  37. Feared a local knight.
  38. Family shared everything.
  39. Found true love, but lost it.
  40. Sought true love, but never found it.
  41. Never wanted true love, but faked it for someone else.
  42. Deemed blessed by the clergy.
  43. Deemed cursed by the clergy.
  44. Broke into a house with other children.
  45. Broke into a house alone.
  46. Found a treasure, had it stolen.
  47. Found a treasure, and wasted it.
  48. Had a terrible experience with drugs.
  49. Had a terrific experience with drugs.
  50. Thought an animal spoke to them once. It did.
  51. Thought an animal spoke to them once. It didn't.
  52. Heard the voice of a god.
  53. Parents spoke of a family curse.
  54. Once got embarrassed by a relative.
  55. Honored by a visiting relative.
  56. Shamed by a distant relative.
  57. Targeted by a nasty rumor.
  58. Used a nasty rumor against a peer.
  59. One step removed from a local scandal.
  60. Was once the center of a local scandal.
  61. Shook an addiction.
  62. Celebrated the passage of victorious soldiers.
  63. Hid while allied soldiers raided.
  64. Hosted peaceful enemy soldiers.
  65. Watched the passage of defeated soldiers.
  66. Hid while enemy soldiers raided.
  67. Wrote a love song that didn't work out.
  68. Wrote a love song that worked perfectly.
  69. Came up with a drinking song that really picked up.
  70. Came up with a drinking song that nobody ever joins.
  71. Watched an elderly relative die.
  72. Witnessed murder in a semi-public area.
  73. Witnessed sex in a semi-public area.
  74. Joined a secret ritual in the wilderness.
  75. Joined a secret ritual in town.
  76. Tried a strange and exotic dish that was delicious.
  77. Tried a strange and exotic dish that was sickening.
  78. Rode a ship once.
  79. Parents had a really nice dining set.
  80. Once saw a magic item one parent secretly owned.
  81. One of the neighbors wasn't human, nobody else knew.
  82. One of the neighbors wasn't human, everybody knew.
  83. Spent a night in the castle.
  84. Spent a night in the wilderness.
  85. Spent a night in the dungeon.
  86. Helped a merchant make a sale.
  87. Stopped a con artist from pulling a scam.
  88. Helped a con artist pull off a scam.
  89. Scammed a traveller once.
  90. Scammed a neighbor once, they never caught on.
  91. Scammed a neighbor once, later they realized.
  92. Got into an argument against all the other children.
  93. Got into an argument against the entire family.
  94. Got into an argument with one peer.
  95. Got into an argument with one relative.
  96. Saw something unforgettable that nobody else remembers.
  97. Everyone always talked about something crazy that you couldn't have forgotten.
  98. Once got injured practicing with a weapon.
  99. Pulled off a stupid dare.
  100. Failed a stupid dare.

Monday, June 17, 2019

The Hearts of War

Haruspices and surgeons of the dead can attest that years of battle and training can twist the body in subtle ways, most notably in the heart. Certain kinds of adventurers will even develop strange, signifying changes to that fleshy core of their being.

Infantry

Textured similar to chain mail, with a form that is resilient and almost protective in a way.

Cavalier

Swift and powerful, pumping the lifeblood perhaps a big too eagerly. It stops beating very soon after death.

Duelist

Beating in precise strokes, with a mildly dazzling sheen.

Berserker

Burgeoning with small blades of iron, gushing blood and beating excitedly for the next battle.

Blademaster

Growing in strange ways, taking an unfamiliar shape with thorns and sometimes even grasping tendrils.

Thief

Sometimes filled with little gold-like pellets, as though the heart of a thief is trying to turn itself into a kind of coin purse.

Assassin

Dark and sharp, shaped almost like a living blade. It seems to disappear somewhere every time you look away.

Hunter

Covered in patterns like leaves, and colored with a hint of dark forest green.

Guardian

Shaped slightly like a shield, there are stories of them turning aside the surgeon's blade.

Inquisitor

Slightly twisted and drained of color, healers who use magical means report difficulty with this kind of stubborn organ.

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

The Minds of Magic

It is no secret or mystery that magic warps the mind and body. But rarely does one shatter the skull of a dead mage and root around at the flesh within. Those who do will find strange things inside...

Dragoner

Beginning to grow scales, and burning like embers from between the folds.

Shrine maiden

Open and porcelain, it can hold a candle and allow it to burn indefinitely.

Necromancer

Pale and wet, it softly steams with smokey blue flame, especially if pierced or pressed.

Witch

A squirming, crawling thing with teeth and fur between the folds of its flesh, it will crawl away and escape if left alone.

Summoner

Full of holes, none of which lead where they should. It amplifies sound.

Illusionist

Mirrored and shining, it is heavy but cannot be touched as long as you can see it.

Druid

A fibrous mass of slowly growing plant matter. May be hard to remove, if the roots have spread into the skull.

Sorcerer

Shaped like a spiral, with traces of energy and fluids swirling around its folds.

Magician

A dazzling but fragile thing, its blood is flashing lights and its substance is mush.

Holy medium

Dry, brittle and pale, but with a soft glow. If water is poured through it, the water will be pure and clear.

Magic user brains can be used as Ingredients for Alchemy.

Friday, June 7, 2019

Halo generator

For when you really just need to roll up some kind of weird halo, be it for strange gods, bizarre angels, or even a really out there OC if need be. This can be helpful for a god/religion generator I'm working on.

Shape

  1. Circular
  2. Traingular
  3. Square
  4. Lines
  5. Flame
  6. Symbol

Color

  1. White
  2. Gold
  3. Black
  4. Rainbow
  5. Mirrored
  6. Clear

Area

  1. Above the head
  2. Behind the head
  3. Behind the shoulders
  4. Behind the hips
  5. Behind the hands
  6. Below the feet

Effect

  1. Glowing
  2. Dripping
  3. Crackling
  4. Spiked
  5. Spinning
  6. Rippling