Not Immediately Obvious Feature of Occult Tome (Roll d100)

(Courtesy of everyone in this thread on Google + (add me if you can't see it).)

This took 2 and a half hours to put together.

1. If left in sunlight, always appears in shadow when next seen. 

2. Bookmarks rot within 1d6 days 

3. Information critical to understanding the rest of the book is written on the endpapers in ink that can only be seen in the light of a burning Hand of Glory. 

4. Earmarks straighten out whenever the book is left in darkness. 

5. Misquotes other occult books investogator is familiar with but author seems to mistranslate parts of sentences into an unknown tongue not understand that they are doing it 

6.  Gives those using it a papercut every damn time. 

7. Is a palimpsest in which the original writing can only be seen under the light of the harvest moon. 

8. Waterproof, but not blood proof. 

9. Sprouts centipede legs and scuttles off if given half a chance 

10. Consumes other books when shelved with them. Its ink begins to fade unless it eats another book at least once a week. 

11. The whole text is a palindrome when translated to enochian script. 

12. Contains only information reader already knows, thought written in an intoxicatingly majestic style. The book actually removes this information from the reader's mind as s/he reads. 

13. Is overdue from the library of Gorlex the Unsavory. And you don't want to hear about the late fees ... 

14. Every time it is opened it steals one year from the far end of the reader's life. 

15. Pages are numbered incorrectly (i.e. out of sequence), but bound in numerical order, making it a tremendous pain in the ass to use. 

16. Chapter beginning illuminations switch persons shown whenever one is copied. 

17.  If read backwards, the book is surprisingly breezy easy reading (taking just all night to read!), and reveals one important fact about an important NPC yet to be met that the NPC would rather not be known. 

18. Moves bookmarks d6 pages towards the end if the book (and reading the "skipped" pages reveals the most important and terrifying truths)

19. Text is set in two different colors, but each color is from three different kinds of ink. Reading the parts that match kinds of ink gives you the real name and location of the author, who is giving instructions as how to free him from his demonic gaol encoded in the whitespace. 

20. Front cover: white goatskin, back cover: black goatskin. 

21.  Fake student text from a wizard academy: The first thirty pages are an incomplete tome on the effect on aetheric currents on arcane casting.  The remainder of the book is succubus-on-succubus porn. 

22. When used to wedge something shut, gains thousandfold weight. This is usual at risk of architectural integrity, and the book is often found at the base of fallen towers. 

23.  Several pages are stuck together. Breaking the seals frees a plethora of literary and allegorical daemons to plague the reader. 

24. When burnt, creates horrid smoke that when breathed imparts the book's content on everybody witnessing the burning (200' radius, but always happens to the person igniting the fire). On a failed save vs magic, victim is compelled to recreate book, including dark rituals to bind the preserving spell to the book again. 

25. The pages of the book are impregnated with hallucinogens, which will kick in, in 1D4 x 10 minutes, rendering the contents of the book frighteningly real.   

26. Book is obviously new in every respect but contains vast amounts of detailed minutiae about world historical events which are recorded nowhere else and which, if checked against physical evidence, are demonstrably true. The author's name is on the spine. 

27.  The book has a gatefold section that really is a gatefold, opening a portal to whatever vista is illuminated on the page. Blue skidooed, we can too! 

28. Reading causes nightmares for distant family member.  

29. Touching the book causes eczema to develop on readers skin in 2d6 days.  

30.  When read in the original language of the first edition it includes subtle linguistic references that turn the context into a romantic epic.The copy the players have is the 4th edition, which reads as the worst kind of textbook.  

31. The contents of the book don't "sink in". The reader learns nothing from reading, however the last person to touch it before them learns as the new reader reads. 

32. If opened to a random page, you can read an awkward secret about someone within visual distance. 

33. Both front and back are covers. If read as if front 1 is the real front, it is on some utterly banal and boring topic (crop yields, tax law, whatever), but if read from front 2 it is the occult tome. 

34. The book forms part of some Borgesian labyrinth a la The Garden Of Forking Paths or House Of Leaves.  

35.  It is a loose-leaf folio that if rearranged becomes another, completely different occult tome. 

36. Spine and cover of book lined with lead; treat as club when used in combat. 

37. Gains a chapter on the life history of anyone that possesses the book for more than a day. This history is correct, other than one major untruth. 

38. The book's index is wrong and changes to a useful index of a book standing left of it when put there for a day. 

39. Reading any entry in the bibliography aloud summons that particular book, but also telegraphs your location to the wizardly owner of said book. 

40. If held in front of a mirror, a duplicate copy will be created in another random time and location 

41. Is still a work in progress despite having been printed & bound. Passages are constantly being rewritten, illuminations added, diagrams redrawn. 

42. Book is not subject to gravity if opened and placed in the air. It will support up to 10 pounds while so levitating, and its pages are immune to wind-flutter (that is, it will keep its place). 

43. The book details every event of the reader's life, in reverse, starting with their gruesome death at the hands of the book's next reader. 

44. The book's content is so mundane that while reading it you're immune to any and all magical effects. If you're a magical creature trying to read the book, it's pages seem to be empty (this includes all characters being able to cast spells). 

45. Certain parts can only be accessed if read in a mirror (the cover also has a mirror affixed, perhaps, to act as a clue). 

46. When the book is opened spiders crawl towards it.  

47.  If read within an hour after killing a humanoid:human - Text is not justified, every page is written margin to margin in writing with sentences running off.dwarf - Touching the text will reveal raised lettering not matching what is written on the page. The sentences in raised lettering will reveal the consciousness of the dwarf's spirit. If read to the end of the book the dwarf's spirit will cease to exist.elf - When opened, the book will absorb the breath of a reader poring over the text. The reader will find it progressively harder to breathe the more time is spent reading. Closing the book will return the reader's breathing to normal.orc - Reader does not feel any aches or strains from bending to read the text for extended periods, but immediately feels them after closing the book. 

48. The book erases readied spells out of the reader's mind and puts them on the pages; the book can only read safely as a spellbook with a custom Read Magic variation (and the book containing that is well, well hidden by the M-U that owns both books). 

49. Illustrations within the book are real and may be grasped and removed from the book, though this is not clear unless an attempt is consciously made to grasp them. 

50. Dead bodies putrefy unnaturally fast when the tome is close to them. 

51. The agnostic topic of the book makes the reader function as the focus of a turn undead spell, only it affects clerics. This effect is ongoing while the book read, plus 1d6 hours after. (Turning at reader's level / hit dice) 

52. The information the reader seeks is contained in full inside the book, but only as a subplot in a metaphorical tale that conclusively proves with cool reason and irrefutable logic that the values most dear to the reader are utterly utterly wrong. So convincing is the argument that it forces a reversal of alignment, causes the faithful to lose their faith, the godless into devouts, the selfish to become selfless, the kind to be cruel and so on.  

53. If you hold the book upside down before opening it to a random page it shows a map on the left hand page of exactly where you are standing. The surrounding region on the map will have a 50% chance of showing any hidden or secret features. Nearby creatures are shown as appearing and disappearing ink spots on the map. It gives the reader a migraine after 1D6 turns of continuous use. 

54. Cover assumes the color of the eyes of the last person to read it all the way through. 

55. The skin binding is unnaturally warm, and shivers pleasantly when stroked.  Owners of the book often caress it in a manner that becomes increasingly lascivious the longer they possess it.  

56. The second to last chapter contains a number of really funny jokes, for a five year old's kind of humor. 

57. The stitching is of dubious quality - whenever opened there is a percentage chance (equal to the readers STR score) that a random page falls out. The original content of this page changes to contain a contract (in an ancient script) that explains the readers soul is now property of a supernatural power, who will contact the PC within 1d4 days to demand a nefarious service.  

58. Tearing out and eating a page of the book pulls you into the world it describes. If someone tears and eats the page whose contents you are travelling in, both save vs magic to avoid exploding into a gory picture filling the pages magically replacing the missing ones.This book gets more and more violent and gory over time, until it reaches a style that even James Raggi thinks is unbearably gross. 

59.  Oh geez now you've got booklice.  Only it takes about a week before you notice, and by then everything is infested.  *EVERYTHING* 

60. When hidden clasp in binding is unfastened book magically unfolds into adjustable flight of stairs up to 100 feet in height. 

61. The book is a fascinating read that keeps you up all night. You will be dog tired the next morning and not be able to memorize spells. Save vs. magic the next night to avoid continuing to read the book. Apply normal rules for sleep deprivation except for falling asleep. Reading the whole book requires seven nights. Removing the book from the vicinity of the victim induces nightmares for 1d4 weeks. 

62. If read from cover to cover, silently or otherwise, over any period of time, so long as it is read sequentially, an avatar or god featured in the tome is summoned. 

63. The tome's text writhes upon its vellum pages as it's read, almost as if the letters are trying to break free. If a PC touches the writing, there's a 4 in 6 chance that the characters will adhere to their skin, marking their body part indelibly with the arcane text (unless removed by a Remove Curse spell).Rumor has it that a shadowy cabal of mages trades in "living grimoire:" severed body parts (mostly hands and arms, though the occasional torso or head shows up in their collections) affected by the book's curse. 

64. The book is bound in the brain matter of a dead wizard or psychic. The book details the life of this person, in a style that is unnaturally compelling to the reader.As the book is read, spells or powers are "unlocked" in the reader and the reader is able to envision and relive events from the author's life not featured in the work.Upon finishing the book, the reader's own mind is wholly replaced with the consciousness of the dead wizard or psychic; meanwhile the reader's own story is recorded in the book, stored there until they replace the next unsuspecting reader. 

65. "Careful study and another successful Geology roll may lead to a single point of Sanity loss, if the Keeper chooses, as the form in the “geode” (on the cover) clearly appears to be a cross section of a worm-like creature, unknown to science, curled in around itself." -Brett Kramer "Masks if Nyarathotep Companion" 

66.  Half of book is written in red ink, the other half in green - these writings are at war with each other.  Pages change with the rise and fall of textual empires. 

67. Book hates the spoken word, and will snap shut for 1D4 Turns (often maliciously trying to take the fingers of the reader) if anyone speaks within 20' of it while it is open. 

68. the book is still redlined. The scathing remarks of the editor hold the real secrets the tome promises to unlock. 

69. The book's script seems to burn with an unnatural urgency. Reading more than a page in an hour causes temporary blindness. 

70. Seems to contain innocuous and banal facts about the everyday world. Things everyone knows anyway. The reader dreams of these things for d6 +2 nights, each night these facts just seem a little stranger and implausible. On the last night the reader can no longer believe the world around them is real. 

71. All of the pages of the book are snakeskin. 

72. The book has tiny little holes in every page encoding a dissenting view in braille. 

73. Touching the endpapers triggers a Save vs Death. 

74. The dedication page contains the name of a PC. 

75. The book is a meme seeking a physical incarnation. Its manifestation is recent, and thus far is a literal zygote that has only acquired a spine and some leaves, unsure of its final biology. Each time it comes into contact with another living being if will acquire a feature of its biology.  

76. While reading the book, everyone within 30 feet of the reader is filled with an insatiable desire to brutally mutilate the reader. This effect lasts for 1d3 turns after the reader stops reading.30 minutes after closing the book, the last reader is filled with an uncontrollable desire to start reading again. 

77. The book is a real slog, poorly written with pertinent information scattered throughout the pages, incorrect page references, a slanderous index and incomplete chapters. But fanning the pages to send a breeze across the reader's face is instantly refreshing and removing all weariness.  

78. The work is written in a recognizable and authentic but seemingly impossible form of Middle English/Middle Common (i.e. words and spellings coined years later appear, before their etymological antecedents, archaisms and syntactical structures derived from languages thought lost during the period appear). 

79. The information sought by the reader is not to be found in the written word, but coded in the delicious booksmell that rises from each page. 

80. Every page has a small section of simple but utterly opaque magical text in the middle of the page. Arranged around this text are three elaborate conflicting commentaries. In fact it is three different spell books in one. If the reader tries to use more than one commentary to interpret the spell on any given page, she will arrive at a definite and nuanced interpretation. But when the spell is cast it will have a 50% of affecting her as a confusion spell.  

81. Because nobody's said it yet:"It's a cookbook!" (disguised as an occult tome, to keep the recipes proprietary) 

82. Cursed necromantic tome. For each spell learned, the user comes one small step closer to being a living mummy.  

83. The book details the lascivious and inappropriate sexual encounters and depravities of all of the spiritual and political leaders of the nearest hamlet or village (but not city), including detailed accounts of specific acts and encounters between those leaders.It is absolutely certain that the book will be found and read by someone who lives in the community.50% of the stories are true, so the book is a dangerous weapon of blackmail and gossip amongst the locals.The contents change whenever the book approaches another village or hamlet. 

84. After reading the book (all effects):In 1d6 days fingernails become blackened and soft.  In 2d8 days 1d6+1 teeth dangle and fallout 1d3 days later.  In 1d8 days hair becomes brittle, thin, and white. In 1d20 days 1d100 cysts grow on body.  

85. The book contains the names of all witches known and unknown, throughout the world, organized by region and date of birth. It contains only the current generation of witches. 

86. The book is actually a spying device. The owner of the counterpart can see you whenever you open the book. 

87. A bestiary in the form of a pop-up book, if a page is removed and thrown to the ground, it becomes an animate, life-size version of the illustration. 

88. It's a trashy novel by a setting-equivalent Matthew Reilly. Drains 1 point of intelligence for every hour you read it, make a save against Will/Paralysis to put it down.Upside down, it's a proper grimoire. 

89. The book contains all the results of all major sport events and games of chances in the realm for the next 50 years. Someday a crazy wild eyed magician and a kid will show up asking about this book. 

90.  The book was not written: it is an author, and scholars who have claimed to read it are, in fact, its works. 

91. It's an epaper book with 1d6 weeks of battery power left. It has 100 various books stored on it, which require their own table to roll for. 

92. Its pages are made from the wrappings of a certain much sought-after mummy, making the book worth fifty times as much as raw materials for spells than for what's written in it. 

93.  The book is a polymorphed halfling. If you put it in your knapsack, it will eat your rations. 

94. The books is seemingly endless (as if each page had a thickness of 0). every time a new section of it is read, it will be about someone who has read the book before, and describe a future action of the person, as if describing a past even.The book deson't predict the future, however. Instead, it tries to compel its readers to do its will. Anyone who tries to defy what is written must save vs spell (or will save, or what have you) or  act as the book dictated. The book itself is completely impervious to damage, and can only be destroyed by an illiterate person. 

95. In the back of the book is a collection of love letters sent between two ancient feuding Persons Of Interest in the game world. There is talk of a love child hidden away somewhere, that hasn't been mentioned in history before. Finding this child or their descendants will cause great turmoil. 

96. Upon finishing the book the reader's intelligence score increases to 100 and they spend the next 3 days feverishly babbling, scribbling notes, and attempting to collect resources to construct a "space bridge".There is a 5% chance they successfully detail or build the bridge.Regardless, at the end of 3 days their intelligence returns to normal, and while they remember possessing the knowledge of how to build the space bridge, they are painfully aware they no longer know how to build the device or what it's function/purpose would be.Reading the book a second time has no effect. 

97. If you fall asleep reading the book, you'll wake up fully refreshed and invigorated 12 years later (unless woken up/killed inbetween). 

98. Concealed under the cover is a map to the Underworld. 

99. From each page of the book exudes fresh air, as if from a clearing. The clearing the book draws air from smells like an old moldy library.

100. The tight, crabbed scrawl filling the thousands of pages within aren't words, they're sounds. Rubbing a violin bow, or a phonograph needle gently across the pages will produce sounds. The whispers of the gods as they made the universe. [insert d100 chart of possible effects].

-

-

-

The Kraal

Frost giants, mastodons, devil swine. Hey look! Another free, collaboratively-made hexcrawl.

Thanks again to Ramanan for doing the heavy lifting on making it web-friendly and thanks to everyone else who donated hexes.
_
_
_

The Hexenbracken

What the inhabitants of the area known to the people of the north as the Hexenbracken call it is not known.

What is known is that it is characterized by shipwrecks, goblin raiders, and a very thin veil between this world and the next. There are rumors of hyperintelligent monkeys, Queen Jane suspects an insect cult in the south, and the central mountains are dominated by the ruins of an ancient black marble city.

Nearby kingdoms fear great power shifts in the wake of the wedding of 7 ogre magi.

Original terrain map by Brendan, place names added by some Random Wizard, and a few bits added by me

The Hexenbracken was created hex-by-hex over the last few days by a ton of people on Google + and despite a certain amount of democratic noise that you'd expect from anything like this, I can say with my hand on my heart that it has a smaller percentage of stupid things in it than any other hexcrawl product I can think of.

At 6 miles per hex, it is approximately the width of Kansas...

Zak SmithYesterday 2:11 AM (edited)

07 20 Dwarves hunting wereboars ( 06 19 ) through the ruins of a vast temple complex that used to be adjacent to Vyrvalis ( 01 17 )

Anders NordbergYesterday 2:32 AM (edited)

07 21 Camp of the Dwarven expedition searching for clues to the secrets of Vervalis ( 01 17 ) in the nearby Dwarf Skeleton Dungeon ( 06 20 ). Most are hunting boars in the nearby forest ( 07 20 ).

M NicksicYesterday 2:49 AM (edited)

07 22
At the junction of two major trade routes, a low, rambling inn does a brisk business selling barbecued pork to travelers. They will grillanything for the right price.

Wayne SnyderYesterday 3:58 AM

07 23 A shallow lake completely fills this grim valley. The water is murky, almost black with silt and infested with giant eels.

Mike EvansYesterday 4:32 AM (edited)

07 24- A group of twenty two statues of ugly haggard woman that face away from one another, circled around carving of full moon.  Babbling and nonsensical mutterings are heard passing between them.  When the moon is full the statues face each other and sing warnings of 4.16. 

Jeff RientsYesterday 4:42 AM

0725 Stankbog, muddy human village of 150 wretches that worship the Great Swamp Gas, a nearby Will-o-Wisp.

etc.

etc.

Random Wizard has kindly put the entire key in Google Doc format here.

To edit it, double click on a cell and you should be able to change it around.

To get rid of a hex you don't like, click "Edit" and then "Delete Row (whatever)"

The "find and replace" function can be used to change (for example, just saying) any "owlbear" to a  "flail snail" or any "bard" to a "corpse", turn snow leopards into leopards or jackals or whatever fits your setting etc etc.

Also, if you want to get a handle on the overall ecology or anthropology of the area, you can do a search for, say "witch" or "dwarf" or "frog" just to see what's going on. And if there is a particular contributor whose stuff you like (or don't) you can search for their ideas.

You should also be able to save it as a pdf no sweat.

If you notice any settlements or other major landmarks not noted on the map above, lemme know--when you're running a hexcrawl it's good to be able to see what's around the party at a glance.

So....have fun with that.
_
_
_

Click To Enlarge And Then Fill In

a-Portal to________________

b-________ trap with _________

c-_____ in pipe beneath

d-______ will attempt to push party into gorge

e- ____________

f-   ______ visible from this position

g- the party will ______ unless _________

h- three _______ and five _________

I would assume this place has walls and a ceiling, so you can't see one room from another, but whatever.

Occupy Abulafia

So here's an adventure:

The Forsaken Keep

The dungeon was originally a vast city of snake-people but has been forgotten by most civilized races for eons. It was rediscovered due to the recent death of the medusa responsible for the statues from which the surrounding stone was quarried. Near the North entrance, a werejaguar of unusual intelligence suspects it may contain a female druid (-Lvl 5-) named Nixie Gott, possessor of an important book & rumored to possess a whetstone of unusual properties--one of particular interest--and so has dispatched hyena-like humanoids into the complex. They communicate via burning things.

Meanwhile, a group of tiny hyena-like humanoids who entered through a secret door to the North suspects it may contain a jade that they value. Their leader is said to be strangely cloned and is also a hulking bruiser with dangerous pets--a swarm of bats that appear to obey his/her every whim. They roams the halls looking for sustenance. They're also far faster than the typical members of their species. This group uses a powerful but barely-mobile psionic medium to spy on the other group of intruders.

(In recent weeks, the two factions have begun to notice each other in the halls.)

Unbeknownst to either side, a giant mantis--a superevolved, hyperintelligent, one--lives deep within, inside a network of tunnels leading eventually to a crown which it prizes beyond all things.

It has constructed traps around its lair--for example, magical sensors connected up to rotary saw blades --but also four stranger traps, informed by its bizarre alien intelligence, which cause intruders to be destroyed by their own depravity. It can avoid the traps easily because of its unique abilities.

The other factions have made about four traps each as well, but they are cruder, since they've been recently and hastily thrown together.

In addition, there are many hazards that are the legacy of the dungeon's original inhabitants. No-one has yet discovered the secret passage within the garbage pile on the fourth level.

Due to the subtle influence of a magic egg (below the fireplace on level two) with a powerful curse on it, nearly all of the inhabitants have become increasingly delusional and some have gained additional bizarre physical and mental deformities. Some have become obsessed with earthquakes for reasons unknown.

Perhaps the most disturbing room in the dungeon is the so-called "panic chamber" which the intelligent creatures in the dungeon fear above all else. However, beyond it there is a male author who hails from the homeland of one of your PCs and may aid him/her, though s/he covets the PCs' (whatever they have that's unusual) and is repulsed by the sight of every stairway s/he sees in the dungeon (sheesh, artists are so sensitive).

The dungeon's architecture resembles an overgrown prison, however every mirror in it is made of electrum and obsidian.

In addition to these things, it is said by some that, hidden deep within the complex, where no mortal has been in eons is the Crown of The Long Cold and a last enclave of Ancient Men, sleeping in suspended animation for thousands of years, ready to be awakened.
__________

Sick of dungeons? Here's another adventure...

The Emerald Canyon

The PCs have heard that if they safely transport--A female warrior (-Lvl 7-) (named Galiana)--soon to be wed to a powerful saboteur & rumored to be the lover of a powerful jester--they will become rich. The bride-to-be must be moved from an inn: The Mug and King, (famous for its bacon-wrapped halibut) to a brutal temple of a primordial faith based on the worship of a god associated with daggers.

The perilous road will take our heroes through the site of an ancient battle where a group of chain-wielding jackal-headed warriors headquartered in a monastery rule. They are slaves of a bioengineered upper caste lead by one called The Lord of Despair.

The vast battleground also includes a treant fed on the blood of the ancient dead and a man-headed centipede.
_____________________

Anyway as you maybe figured out I've been fucking around with Abulafia some more.

This post's purpose is threefold:

1-to tell you it's neat

2-to recommend you make some generators or add some depth or content to existing ones,

3-to be like 'I smear liquid plastic on paper and put my dick in people for money and even I figured out how to do this so it can't be that hard'

Here are the generators I've made so far and some things you could do to/with them:

Dungeon Overview: This is probably the slickest and most complete. And, for me at least, it produces stuff pretty useful right outta the box. If I was you and I liked dungeons, I'd clone it and modify it into a version that fit the kind of stuff in your world.

Fantasy Assignment: This is like rumors and jobs basically. It's very uneven. It basically goes Verb Objective Location. The objectives are fairly decent since Abulafia already had a huge library of objects and monsters and NPCs to draw on and the verbs are ok but hardly cover every possible assignment or kind of assignment yet. The locations are the most uneven part--they come from...

...this Fantasy Adventure Location generator: there are like 50 kinds of locations, some with lots of detail for the DM (like the fortresses), some with a little--like the cities--"a cosmopolitan city, known for its ancient ruling caste as well as its monstrous buildings", some have none "a mountain". This is a place where I feel like people could really help out--What are some things you'd put in a swamp? A temple? A desert?

Today At Sea As described before, it's a slightly modified version of the wavecrawl kit from this blog. It's pretty good, thinks me. But more options would never go amiss--particularly for the sea creatures subtable.

Random Humanoid Horde Pretty decent version of the one from this blog. Includes options for the basic races (goblin, gnoll etc.) plus a less likely option for (random animal)man.

Fortress Generator From this blog: does its job, I think.

Hex Map Key Generates 100 hexes at once. Most are dull on purpose. It's perfectly functional for a lot of things (cut it, paste it, give it numbers matching your hexgrid) but you could easily add more detail at every level if you were so inclined. Also: there are no climate-specific versions of it and the monsters are as yet totally random rather than segregated to make sense (Encounter: a pack of hyenas (two, actually) killing a swarm of bats). In addition, many of the possible locations from the other tables (mansion, etc.) are not integrated into this table.

Dungeon Room Ok as a springboard but could use some work: generates 2-5 exits, a room type (mess hall, stable, etc.), an encounter (possibilities: trap, monster, trap+monster, 2 monsters interacting) and the possibility of one other random object ("a grape""a sword").

Every room has an encounter of some kind--unlike the hex generator this is just meant to generate a room that's interesting, not a whole map full of exciting and boring rooms.

This could be improved in a lotta ways if one was so inclined. The monsters, again, are spectacularly random (" a mold (actually several) chasing a quaggoth").

Creepy Fantasy Villain Generates 10 results which sound like the kind of "spooky occult phrases" the FBI's COINTELPRO used to include in anonymous letters to Alan Ginsberg and Bob Dylan-- of which about 8 are generally dumb ("The Huntsman of The Wolves " "The Knight of The Infinite Night ") and 2 are awesome ("The Merchant of Failure" "The Oracle of One Thousand Lunacies "). Not terribly complex at this point but probably not a priority.

Arabian Nights-Ish Scenario Generator A less complicated prototype of the Fantasy Assignment one I made for Mandy's Al Qadim game. If you're inclined to tinker with this, its main virtue is it draws on abulafia's pretty decent middle-eastern-setting occupation generator.

These are more like utility generators, mostly just providing sub-libraries for other generators to draw on:

Exotic Landscape: Cut and pasted straight from this blog ('Cobalt Reach'). Very simple. Could use more options.

Fantasy Mansion Domestic Security Generator Cut and pasted straight from this blog. Very simple. Could use more options.

Fantasy NPC (Basic) Race, job, gender. This one's pretty thorough, though it'd also be a good place to start if you wanted to make a new version of the generator weighted toward fighting or adventurign NPCs. Right now there as likely to be a barkeep as an archer.

Fantasy Person Of Interest A simple, described NPC (race, job, gender) with one or two random things about them. If you want to fuck with this one you could add a few more options for the kinds of details. Like there's no option for, say "Wants to be ruler of ____" or "Despises ____" etc.

Fantasy Town (Simpler) this is just a stripped-down version of one that was already on Abulafia. It provided a little too many unconnected details for my taste.

Weird Fantasy Monster this includes every monster I personally would wanna use (including, now, all the monsters in the Folio, since I did all those posts dedicated to making those monsters usable to me). There are several other bestiaries on abulafia you could use instead if you want a more general list. Or make your own by cutting and pasting from mine and theirs and any other list you have.

Also there are no monster-by-environment tables yet. Could be very useful.

I also added a ".Weirdsymbol" directory to the "animal" generator which includes all the real-life animals I could think of that were creepy or vicious or symbolic. i.e. no squirrels, but it's got maggots and squids and lions and tigers.

Also of interest:

The Traps generator is ok, but could use a lot more options if you were so inclined and there's no way to generate a specific kind of trap only (magic, rustic, etc.) . Since it can be used to feed so many other generators it'd be neat to add more options, like "touching (randomobject) opens bars freeing (randommonster)" etc.

_________

Tips to make new thingies:

I don't know how you're supposed to make a new table, but I just do a search like "Mermaid Tail Types" then it tells me there aren't any tables named that but I can make one if I want and there's a link and I hit it. then I hit "Edit"...

A bunch of crap goes at the top which I can't type here because blogger automatically turns it into format code but you can swipe the stuff you need from an existing generator--just set "iterations" to "1" if you're new at this.

Then type...

;main
1,[Thenyouwritethenameofatablehere]
_____________
Then you write a word in those brackets that describes your table--Tailtypes or whatever.

then you go below and go:

;Tailtypes
1,Big
1,Scary
1,Funny
1,Hilarious
1,Gigantic
_______

Then write a bunch of crap at the bottom of the table after a break you can swipe from another table...

...and then you're done. You can make it more complicated in lots of ways but if you take a look at some pre-existing tables you can probably figure out how it's done. If you want your table to draw on an existing one you put [Fantasy NPC (Basic).Main] for example in there. If you want to draw on a subtable of one of the existing tables you'd do like [ Fantasy NPC (Basic).Classes] and it should work. Be aware that hitting "enter" to make a new paragraph int he output doesn't work and just ends the thingy--you have to put in line break code--"
".

Here's what a finished one looks like:

(some code)

;main
1,[Gender] [Race] [Job]

;Gender
1,male
1,female

;Race
60, there's nothing here because this result is just "implied human"
10,elven
5,dwarven
5,halfling
5,half-orc
5,half-elf
1,possibly doppelganger
1,possibly not-entirely human
the numbers aren't all 1's because I've weighted this table

;Job
1,metalsmith
1,milliner
1,silversmith
1,tanner
1,tinsmith
1,trapsmith
1,weaponsmith
1,architect
1,artisan
1,bricklayer
1,carpenter
1,cartwright
(etc.)
(some more code)

That'd produce a thing saying "Male cartwright" or "Female elven cartwright". If you want it to spit out lots of results you make the "iterations" number higher.

______

If you make anything, let us know here in the comments....

ThroneCrypt of The Afflicted Lord

Collage on paper 6"x9" or so. Click to enlarge. Here's a version of it labeled using the Vornheim font Andreas made for me...
I figure the Afflicted Lord (M) has been trapped down there for centuries on account of his own wickedness, cursed and slowly mutating yadda yadda, and the guy in location Q is some equally afflicted servant. I also figure following the (hard to see) dotted line from F down to G and H leads to the family crypt.

Also: the pale yellow squares are ordinary doors and the blue squares are secret doors.

If you've got any ideas what else is going on in there, please let us know...

Gygaxian Democracy #13: The Hornersberg

Pick a part and give us some notes on it...

Goals? What Goals?

Ok, this really sucks. I go all the way to an alternate dimension just to get a module and I can't even find a decent copy.

Does anybody have this page intact? What's it supposed to say? Whose goals are they? All the goddamn nouns are missing.

(click to enlarge)

What In God's Name Is Going On In Chamber K?

So, as regular readers may remember, yesterday I picked up this imaginary D&D module.

Well I've been flipping through it and taking notes and I got into the "Chambers" section (p. 6-15, after the interlocking NPC-motivation tables) and, fuck me, pages 7 and 8 are missing. So I have no idea what the fuck the diagram in this 2-page spread is supposed to mean.

Does anybody have this module? (Yeah yeah, I checked all the file-sharing sites--it's hard to find scans of it since it only exists in an alternate universe.) Can anybody fill me in on what's supposed to be going on here?

(And, incidentally, so far, even leaving out Chamber K, this module has me completely baffled, so if you ran it successfully and have any tips, I'll take 'em.)

Challenge!!! Review This Non-Existent Module

I traveled to an alternate universe and, naturally, the first thing I did was hit up some used game stores. Disappointingly, there were only 2 differences between this alternate universe and our own:

1-There was a D&D module there that doesn't exist in this reality.

2-Instead of being used for the cover of a well-known classic metal album, the illustration above was used for the cover of that D&D module. (And, having perused it, I'll say the choice was both appropriate and eloquent.)


Your turn: Tell us the name of this module and tell us what it was like running it and/or reading it.

100 Dungeon Encounters And Why They're Happening

(help finish this table and contribute to the just-get-me-through-that-first-room random dungeon generator explained yesterday)

1-No encounter per-se but the entrance the PCs came in through becomes unusable. Because the inhabitant is a crazy sadist.
2-No encounter per-se but the entrance the PCs came in through becomes unusable. Because of natural cave-in or decay.
3-No encounter per-se but the entrance the PCs came in through becomes unusable. Because ____
4-No encounter per-se but the entrance the PCs came in through becomes unusable. Because_____
5-No encounter per-se but the entrance the PCs came in through becomes unusable. Because________
6-A complex device (not necessarily dangerous). Because this is where they store it.
7-A complex device (not necessarily dangerous). Because it is important to the workings of the dungeon.
8-A complex device (not necessarily dangerous). Because this room has been forgotten.
9-A complex device (not necessarily dangerous). Because_____
10-d4 soldier-type monsters. Because they're performing a routine security sweep of this room.
11-d4 soldier-type monsters. Because they're undead and you've awakened them by entering this place.
12-d4 soldier-type monsters. Because ______
13-d4 soldier-type monsters. Because _____
14-d4 soldier-type monsters. Because _______
15-d4+1 soldier-type monsters. Because they're guarding what's past this room.
16-d4+1 soldier-type monsters. Because ____
17-d4+1 soldier-type monsters. Because _______
18-d4+1 soldier-type monsters. Because ________
19-3d6 soldier-type monsters. Because they live in this room.
20-3d6 soldier-type monsters. Because ________
21-A brute-type monster. Because it wandered in here looking for food.
22-A brute-type monster. Because the inhabitants keep it here as a "guard dog".
23-A brute-type monster. Because_____
24-A brute-type monster. Because _____
25-A brute-type monster. Because_____
26-A brute-type monster. Because_____
27-A brute-type monster. Because _______
28-A brute-type monster. Because ______
29-A brute-type monster. Because______
30-A brute-type monster. Because ________
31-A schemer-type monster. Because it heard the PCs come in and is investigating.
32-A schemer-type monster. Because it has an offer for the PCs.
33-A schemer-type monster. Because ______
34-A schemer-type monster. Because ______
35-A schemer-type monster. Because _______
36-A schemer-type monster. Because ______
37-A wizard. Because s/he's lost.
38-A wizard. Because of a magical accident.
39-A wizard. Because she wants to steal something from the PCs an use it as a spell component.
40-A wizard. Because _________
41-A wizard. Because ________
42-d6 vermin-type monsters (or a swarm). Because this area is gross and forgotten.
43-d6 vermin-type monsters (or a swarm). Because this area is a garbage dump.
44-d6 vermin-type monsters (or a swarm). Because this is a high-traffic area but the inhabitants aren't very clean.
45-d6 vermin-type monsters (or a swarm). Because ________
46-d6 vermin-type monsters (or a swarm). Because ________
47-d6 vermin-type monsters (or a swarm). Because _______
48-d6 vermin-type monsters (or a swarm). Because_________
49-d6 vermin-type monsters (or a swarm). Because _______
50-d6 vermin-type monsters (or a swarm). Because ______
51-d6 vermin-type monsters (or a swarm). Because ______
52-A weird-type monster. Because the inhabitants keep it here as a guard.
53-A weird-type monster. Because it smells food.
54-A weird-type monster. Because it was accidentally summoned and escaped.
55-A weird-type monster. Because ______
56-A weird-type monster. Because _______
57-A weird-type monster. Because ______
58-A weird-type monster. Because _______
59-A weird-type monster. Because ________
60-d4 automatic guardian-type monsters. Because there is something of value here.
61-d4 automatic guardian-type monsters. Because there was once something of value here.
62-d4 automatic guardian-type monsters. Because _______
63-d4 automatic guardian-type monsters. Because ________
64-A party not unlike the PCs. Because they are trying to loot this dungeon.
65-A party not unlike the PCs. Because they were prisoners and are escaping.
66-A party not unlike the PCs. Because ________
67-A party not unlike the PCs. Because _______
68-A party not unlike the PCs. Because _________
69-An apparently harmless NPC. Because s/he's lost.
70-An apparently harmless NPC. Because s/he is secretly a dangerous doppleganger/thief/demon.
71-An apparently harmless NPC. Because __________
72-An apparently harmless NPC. Because ________
73-An apparently harmless NPC. Because ______
*74-An injured creature. Because one of the nearby traps hurt it.
*75-An injured creature. Because it was just in a fight with something fearsome in a nearby room.
*76-An injured creature. Because _________
*77-An injured creature. Because ________
*78-An injured creature. Because _________
79-The whole room is a trap. Because the architect was a crazy sadist.
80-The whole room is a trap. Because the inhabitant is a crazy sadist.
81-The whole room is a trap. Because it was the only way the inhabitants could think of to guard against large numbers of foes invading simultaneously.
82-The whole room is a trap. Because _________
83-The whole room is a trap. Because ________
84-The whole room is a puzzle. Because the architects were trying to allow only certain kinds of people/creatures in.
85-The whole room is a puzzle. Because the architects were, by human standards, insane.
86-The whole room is a puzzle. Because the the behavior of the room play some role in a bizarre religious ritual.
87-The whole room is a puzzle. Because _________
88-The whole room is a puzzle. Because _________
*89-A confrontation between two creatures or kinds of creatures. Because there is a war going on down here.
*90-A confrontation between two creatures or kinds of creatures. Because one party was trying to steal from the other.
*91-A confrontation between two creatures or kinds of creatures. Because these two factions both live down here and their truce is uneasy.
*92-A confrontation between two creatures or kinds of creatures. Because _______
*93-A confrontation between two creatures or kinds of creatures. Because _______
*94-Creature(s) in a room which has a bizarre physical layout. Because of a recent natural or magical disaster.
*95-Creature(s) in a room which has a bizarre physical layout. Because the inhabitants here are weird and like it that way.
*96-Creature(s) in a room which has a bizarre physical layout. Because the architect was possessed of an intelligence unimaginable to humans.
*97-Creature(s) in a room which has a bizarre physical layout. Because________
*98-Creature(s) in a room which has a bizarre physical layout. Because______
*99-Creature(s) in a room which has a bizarre physical layout. Because______
*00-Creature(s) in a room which has a bizarre physical layout. Because________

*For these results, roll a result from 10-69 on this table to determine creature type: 1d6 for the first digit, 1d10 for the second digit.

In the end, there will, of course, be separate tables for "random brute type monsters", "random weird-type monsters" "random puzzle rooms" etc. supplementing this table.

The rest of this table is to be filled in by Gygaxian democracy. Please do chip in and leave a comment with a rationale for an encounter or two or three in the comments.

100 Dungeon Doors And Why They're There

(Preamble you can skip)

You're DMing. The PCs go down into a dungeon. But you don't have one...

So...Random dungeon generators. Some basic principles (using the categories I made up here):

Fast, easy-to-use, complete random dungeon generators do exist. Mostly on-line. However: these dungeons are either totally random (Room 1: Gnolls! Room 2: Ghosts!) or have elements taken from a list of thematically similar elements (Room 1: Ghosts! Room 2: Spectres!).

Fast, easy-to-use, complete random dungeon generators for dungeons that make some sense and are kinda original do not.

(Randomly picking from a list of pre-existing dungeons is not usually an acceptable solution because:
1-it takes just as long to prep a pre-existing scenario as think up one, and
2-if you liked a module enough to have prepped it, you'd probably have put it somewhere on the map by now)

Slow, easy-to-use, incomplete/inspirational random dungeon generators do exist. These are essential DM-prep aids and are not designed to be reliably and repeatedly used to improvise during a game.

Fast, easy-to-use, complete random dungeon generators for dungeons that make sense and are kinda original (that is: fast breeding generators for dungeons) are probably, in the abstract, impossible to make, since making a whole dungeon fast would require a computer, doing it so it makes sense would require literary creativity beyond the power of a computer, and doing it with random rationales instead of derived ones would essentially make it incomplete since the DM would still have to make the pegs fit the holes and figure out how A led to B in order to make the dungeon make sense.

Therefore:

The best we can probably do, to give the DM a during-the-game random dungeon generator for dungeons that make some sense is a sort of half-measure.
__________

Here's my idea for such a half-measure:

A dungeon generator that functions as a simple, complete generator for all the elements of a single dungeon room (the first one the party enters) but also gives reasons for everything in that room being the way it is. These different reasons can then be used by the DM to understand what's going on in the rest of the dungeon and populate its rooms accordingly, at least until the session's over and the DM has time to prep again.

The principle here is that giving a DM an incomplete generator for a whole dungeon in the middle of a session doesn't help, but sort of giving him/her a "Drip-feed" of information one piece at a time,w hen needed, will help him/her slowly improvise a dungeon.

The generators do not have to cover all possibilities for what could happen in a dungeon room, just a wide enough range for that first room. Assume the real creative heavy-lifting will still have to be done by the DM some point down the line. This generator is just that first dose of morning caffeine.

If this seems a little vague, hod on, because I get real specific soon...
_______

There are basically four parts to a dungeon room:

-Encounter: The major thing that is in the room. A monster, a puzzle, a device, whatever. Some rooms don't have these, obviously.

-Exits: usually doors or doorways, these are things you have to deal with to get in or out of the room.

-Decor: What it looks like and incidental furnishings, including light sources, etc.

-Layout: Physical size and shape of the room.

I am gonna assume that if we can generate Encounters and Exits and reasons for them, then the Decor and Layout have a good chance of being strongly implied by one of the reasons we got for the Encounters and Exits. (Like: if we figure out the room has a cursed altar, then we know we've probably got candles and maybe pews, etc. and the room's kinda big.)

So: Encounters, Exits, and reasons for them and nothing else. To make things easier we're going to assume this first room:

1) Has an encounter (it'll give the DM time and fuel to start imagining the rest of the dungeon)

and

2) Has exits in the form of doors (i.e. this first room will not be one of those "apparent dead ends but actually the exit is through the yellowish puddle on the floor" rooms)

Exits are easier so we'll do that first, we'll do encounters another day:

In the rationales for these results, I'm going to use the following terms...

Architects: whatever culture or individual built the place in the first place
Inhabitants: whatever cultures or individuals live there now
Intruders: individuals (like the PCs) who just came down into the dungeon recently to loot it or whatever

Assume each room has whatever portal the PCs came in through plus d4 others. Since this is just the first dungeon room, I'm going to assume the exits are all just doors (i.e. the possibility of a dead end). Roll once for each door or once, period, and apply the result to all the doors.



So, 100 Dungeon Doors And Why They're There:

1-Trap, primitive/simple. Because intruders are looking for something in here and rigged it up because they don't want to be disturbed.
2-Trap, primitive/simple. Because the inhabitant culture is primitive/simple.
3-Trap, primitive/simple. Because the mechanism is old and no longer works as well as it used to.
4-Trap, primitive/simple. Because ____________
5-Trap, primitive/simple. Because____________
6-Trap, primitive but magical. Because intruders who have a magic-user with them are in here and don't want to be disturbed.
7-Trap, primitive but magical. Because the inhabitant culture is primitive but has shamen/priests.
8-Trap, primitive but magical. Because it was designed to keep out vermin or children, not tough guys like the PCs.
9-Trap, primitive but magical. Because _________
10-Trap, primitive but magical. Because_________
11-Trap, sophisticated (mechanical). Because the architect culture was sophisticated and was protecting something of value.
12-Trap, sophisticated (mechanical). Because the architect culture was of a species that would not need to use the door the way a human would.
13-Trap, sophisticated (mechanical). Because the inhabitants hide something of value behind the door.
14-Trap, sophisticated (mechanical). Because ________
15-Trap, sophisticated (mechanical). Because __________
16-Trap, sophisticated and magical. Because the architect culture was protecting something of value.
17-Trap, sophisticated and magical. Because an inhabitant is a crazy wizard.
18-Trap, sophisticated and magical. Because the architecture is alive.
19-Trap, sophisticated and magical. Because __________
20-Trap, sophisticated and magical. Because _________
21-Locked, ordinary lock. Because the inhabitants didn't think anyone would ever come down here.
22-Locked, ordinary lock. Because the inhabitants are too primitive to do any better.
23-Locked, ordinary lock. Because, to the inhabitants, this is an ordinary place with nothing terribly valuable in it.
24-Locked, ordinary lock. Because the real heavy locks are later down the line.
25-Locked, ordinary lock. Because__________________
26-Locked, serious lock. Because the inhabitants are protecting something of value.
27-Locked, serious lock. Because the inhabitants are xenophobes and this place is forbidden to outsiders
28-Locked, serious lock. Because the inhabitants are sophisticated and this is just normal for them.
29-Locked, serious lock. Because ___________
30-Locked, serious lock. Because ___________
31-Locked, magically. Because the inhabitant includes a wizard.
32-Locked, magically. Because this room contains something of special value.
33-Locked, magically. Because a recent emergency int he dungeon has caused an inhabitant to go around and magically lock as many doors as possible.
34-Locked, magically. Because _______
35-Locked, magically. Because _______
36-Locked, puzzle lock. Because the architects designed this place only to admit certain types of individuals.
37-Locked, puzzle lock. Because one inhabitant is crazy.
38-Locked, puzzle lock. Because it wasn't designed as a puzzle lock but the original mechanism
has sort of fallen apart over the years and now is tricky to deal with.
39-Locked, puzzle lock. Because_____
40-Locked, puzzle lock. Because ____
41-False door. Because the architect(s) was(were) eccentric.
42-False door. Because the inhabitants have some ritual reason for needing them
43-False door. Because a spell was recently unleashed in the dungeon that multiplies the facades of things.
44-False door. Because ______
45-False door. Because ______
46-Doorless archway. Because there used to be a door here but it rotted away.
47-Doorless archway. Because this was a residence.
48-Doorless archway. Because the inhabitants removed the door in order to make it into a residence.
49-Doorless archway. Because this was designed as a temple.
50-Doorless archway. Because ____
51-Ornate but unprotected. Because this used to be a temple.
52-Ornate but unprotected. Because this area is dangerous and has been abandoned by most of the inhabitants.
53-Ornate but unprotected. Because ______
54-Ornate but unprotected. Because _____
55-Ornate but unprotected. Because_______
56-Ordinary unlocked door. Because to the inhabitants, this is an ordinary place.
57-Ordinary unlocked door. Because the lock has been broken by recent intruders.
58-Ordinary unlocked door. Because inhabitants have abandoned this place.
59-Ordinary unlocked door. Because the front entrance was someplace the PCs already somehow passed and nobody expected intruders to get this far.
60-Ordinary unlocked door. Because __________
61-Secret door, mechanically hidden. Because the architects hid something of value here.
62-Secret door, mechanically hidden. Because the inhabitants hid something of value here.
63-Secret door, mechanically hidden. Because this room was a prison.
64-Secret door, mechanically hidden. Because _______
65-Secret door, mechanically hidden. Because ______
66-Secret door, magically hidden. Because the architects were magical and hid something behind it.
67-Secret door, magically hidden. Because the inhabitants hid something behind it.
68-Secret door, magically hidden. Because an intruder has magical abilities and is behind it somewhere and does not want to be disturbed.
69-Secret door, magically hidden. Because _______
70-Secret door, magically hidden. Because _____
71-Door concealed behind stuff. Because intruders are behind it and don't want to be disturbed/discovered.
72-Door concealed behind stuff. Because inhabitants forgot about the room and have piled stuff up in this room in front of the door.
73-Door concealed behind stuff. Because this room is semi-abandoned and full of crap.
74-Door concealed behind stuff. Because _____
75-Door concealed behind stuff. Because _____
76-Accidentally/organically "trapped"--the architecture falls apart in a dangerous way when you attempt to open this door. Because it's old.
77-Accidentally/organically "trapped"--the architecture falls apart in a dangerous way when you attempt to open this door. Because the inhabitants know never to use this door and so use it as a sort of intruder alarm.
78-Accidentally/organically "trapped"--the architecture falls apart in a dangerous way when you attempt to open this door. Because recent fighting int he complex has fucked it up.
79-Accidentally/organically "trapped"--the architecture falls apart in a dangerous way when you attempt to open this door. Because __________
80-Accidentally/organically "trapped"--the architecture falls apart in a dangerous way when you attempt to open this door. Because ______
81-Locked but key is in this room. Because the next room is a prison cell.
82-Locked but key is in this room. Because an inhabitant dropped it.
83-Locked but key is in this room. Because only an intruder would be dumb enough to enter the next room and it's a sort of trap.
84-Locked but key is in this room. Because___________
85-Locked but key is in this room. Because_________
86-Door is alarmed or alerts nearby inhabitants/intruders. Because they are tough but not great at making locks and traps.
87-Door is alarmed or alerts nearby inhabitants/intruders. Because it was hastily thrown together by intruders.
88-Door is alarmed or alerts nearby inhabitants/intruders. Because intruders want to shadow the PCs and take their stuff.
89-Door is alarmed or alerts nearby inhabitants/intruders. Because the inhabitants want intruder to come in for some reason,but also want to know when they're in here.
90-Door is alarmed or alerts nearby inhabitants/intruders. Because_________
91-Door has a broken trap. Because it's old.
92-Door has a broken trap. Because it was poorly made by primitive inhabitants.
93-Door has a broken trap. Because it was recently sprung by intruders.
94-Door has a broken trap. Because ________
95-Door has a broken trap. Because ________
96-Door has a broken lock. Because the architects once kept something of value here but the inhabitants took it long ago.
97-Door has a broken lock. Because intruders just picked it.
98-Door has a broken lock. Because a beast just destroyed it.
99-Door has a broken lock. Because the inhabitants are primitive and suck at making locks.
00-Door has a broken lock. Because _________

I leave the remaining results up to Gygaxian Democracy. Write the number of your rationale in the comments and I will add it to the final table.




_______
Naturally, the final generator will also include separate tables for "12 sophisticated mechanical traps", "12 puzzle locks", etc. etc. as well as some examples of possible "architect cultures" and "inhabitants" etc.

The final version of these tables should probably be done as cards or Vornheim-style drop-die charts so that you can get several results fast.