A zine dedicated primarily to tabletop roleplaying games (analysis, inspiration, homebrew content, and so on), as well as other pieces of nerd culture miscellany. Writers and contributors welcome! Please let us know if we forgot to tag anything.
Use this series of tables to come up with random potions! You can use this as a DM to describe an unidentified magic potion that you give your players. As a player, you can use this when you create potions as a spellcaster or someone proficient in Alchemist’s Tools. Use this with the Alchemy Profession Guide!
image credit: Vera Velichko
Potion Vessel
Every potion has to be held in something! Roll on the following tables to generate a container for your potion including its material, shape, and its seal or stopper.
Potion Vessel Shape
Potion Vessel Material
Potion Seal/Stopper
image credit: Zoltan Boros and Gabor Szikszai
Potion Description
Roll on the following tables to create a random liquid! If you want your potion to be identifiable, try adding a telling ingredient to float in the potion. For instance, a Giant’s Strength potion can have a giant’s toe inside, while a Potion of Fly might have an angel’s feather within. A healing potion might have some medicinal herbs floating inside.
Potion Color
Potion Smell
Potion Taste
How it’s Made
Randomly describe how to create the potion. Roll twice or more on the Ingredients table. Then roll once for each ingredient beyond the first on the Alchemical Processes table to determine how each ingredient is added to the first ingredient. It might be mixed in a special way or treated in a unique way before it’s added.
I should note this is for D&D fluff and narration and is not based in science. Dissolving Aqua Fortis and Mercury in alcohol will not make a healing potion so do not drink it!
Ingredients
Alchemical Process
Potion Effects
There are many existing potions, but I feel like a lot of existing spells could be made into potions. So, I added some. I based them loosely on spell scrolls but tried to move the better ones to higher rarities because potions are objectively better than scrolls (anyone can drink a potion, only casters can use scrolls).
If you roll for a potion randomly as part of a treasure hoard, be sure it’s of an appropriate rarity for the players.
Welcome back to Dolonwood! In an effort to expand and develop both the Dolonwood setting and the UBS system, I will be frequently publishing articles about notable creatures from Dolonwood, complete with stat blocks. Wondering what Dolonwood and the UBS system? Check the “Dolonwood and UBS” page up top, or poke around the “#UBS” and “#Dolonwood” tags.
Now, let’s talk about Piper Wights:
Piper Wights are the spirits of Sylvan entertainers who died in agony. This could happen for a variety of reasons. Maybe one jester's joke for a Baron was received… less than positively. Perhaps a forbidden love affair resulted in a brutal stabbing. Less dramatically, one musician might have drunkenly tripped and fallen down the stairs of an inn in the wee hours of the morning and her body wasn’t discovered till, long after she bled out. Either way, a Piper Wight will form in a week or two after the Sylvan’s death.
Often dwelling in barrows during the morning and venturing out at night to wreak havoc, Piper Wights have a variety of deadly powers. Aside from being incorporeal and possessing a life draining touch, they are known for their ability to command vermin with the sound of their spectral flute. These vermin are most often lamprats, wretch roaches, and barrow crabs as they are the vermin most commonly native to barrows (stats and descriptions at the end of the article).
Piper Wights attack three types of people. The first is bad critics and audience members. This includes critics who are too snobby, hecklers and those who stiff performers on tips, applause, and payments. The second is artists who abuse their success, such as those who abuse fans or use their fame as an excuse or shield for their immoral actions. The final group is bad artists, particularly those who think they are “undiscovered” and “misunderstood”, or use irony and long-winded, pretentious explanation to excuse a poor performance.
All of these sinners are given a real “death of the author” treatment: their guts ripped out by rats and insects, generously infected with the plague, or drained of their life force until they are nothing but husks. In a town under the shadow of a Piper, Wight music goes silent.
Fortunately for the perspective monster hunter, Piper Wights have a variety of weaknesses. They have the general undead weaknesses: silver, salt, and symbols of the Society of the Divine Wheel. Strangely, Piper Wights have one additional weakness: bad poetry. If you read bad poetry strongly and firmly around a Piper Wight, it will cause them to shriek and run away if at all possible.
Description: The ghosts of dead Sylvan entertainers who died horribly. They are known to attack those who “abuse art”. Their most fearful power is the ability to command vermin. Piper Wights hate bad poetry.
Description: Lampray Rat. This creature looks like an ordinary rat, but without ears, simple eyes, and a circular orifice ringed with razor-sharp teeth that can latch onto its prey. Also, these creatures tend to swarm. Often appearing in swarms, these vermin infest the barrows of the Children of the Old Ways. Along with sucking blood, they are known to cause Barrow Rot which causes mange and madness if not treated. They are often accompanied by Piper Wights and follow their every command.
Description: Though they look like regular roaches, Wretch Roaches carry the stink of decaying corpses, which causes its victims to vomit uncontrollably. Unlike normal roaches, they also have a hunger for flesh.
Description: Barrow crabs look like hermit crabs that are the size of a horse. Their shells are always grey, with mortal skulls poking out. This shell gives them protection from those who would invade their underground home or others of their species who would fight for space or mates. Why is the shell skull-like? No one knows, and few could withstand the answer.
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🐟 My one contribution to mermay, this year. One of my gender-ambiguous merfolk sitting under a net! Painted with much better watercolour paints than I’m used to. :D
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🐟 Mon unique contribution à mermay, cette année. Il s’agit d’une de mes sirènes au genre ambigu, sous un filet ! J’ai pu peindre avec de bien meilleures aquarelles que d’ordinaire. :D
Helheim Unbound is a tabletop RPG with a focus on collaborative storytelling, flexible character creation, and an easy to learn system.
Storytelling is an art as old as humanity itself. History is rife with epic tales; from the Greek bards of old who tweaked the home ports of ships and soldiers in Homer’s tales, to the Norse skalds who spread the stories of the All Father, Thor, and Loki. Even today, the games we play are ultimately about storytelling and a satisfying narrative experience.
Helheim Unbound is a roleplaying game designed with quick resolutions and narrative play in mind. We have created a framework that translates a player’s vision for a character into a playable champion. The end result is a system that allows a group to play in a matter of minutes, with minimal complexities to tie down the narrative.
Helheim Unbound can be used as a generic system for practically any setting, but included is an example setting at the dawn of the Viking Age. Whether players embark on daring raids with the Vikings or enlist with King Charles on his crusade to spread the boundaries of Christendom, there is a world filled with conflict and adventure.
Don’t just take our word on it, see it for yourelf!
Watch the Video on Demand from Encounter Roleplay as they play Helheim Unbound in the Death of a Dragonborn campaign.
WHAT’S INSIDE HELHEIM UNBOUND’S 64 PAGES?
Introduction: The Basics. A little bit of background, what you need to play, and player roles.
Chapter 1: Core Rules. The Core Rules cover everything from dice mechanics, how actions work, how your champion is developed, wealth, and a quick guide to magic.
Chapter 2: Champion Creation. All about how you create your champion, including their desires, skills, benefits and hindrances, starting resources, and how to measure success when the champion dies or retires.
Chapter 3: The Gamemaster. Tips and tricks for Gamemasters, including when to test and setting test difficulties, how to create creatures, and guidance on managing a rules-lite system like Helheim Unbound.
Chapter 4: Examples. Norse / Dark Age themed examples to help inspire players, including all aspects of champion creation, ideas for encounters, and sample creatures for the champions to face. We also have included some examples for other settings as well!
Chapter 5: Magic. Magic was the number one area our playtesters wanted more information on, so we dedicated a chapter to it! We include a framework for creating your own magic system, as well as two complete magic systems: One based on the 18 Runes from the Havamal and 18 Miracles from the Bible.
Champion Sheets
We also have PDF champion sheets available for download, including form-fillable and printer-friendly options as part of the same package. Here is what both pages (front page, form-fillable version; back page, printer-friendly version) of the champion sheet look like:
What sets Helheim Unbound apart from other roleplaying games?
Helheim Unbound provides the framework: Measures of success. There are three different ways the outcomes are tested by the dice.
Simple Tests. Simple tests are pass or fail. Do I find something? Do I break down the door?
Complex Tests. Complex tests have degrees of success and failure. Meet the target and you accomplish what you want to do.
For each point above you do better, for each point below you do worse. How well do I climb? How quickly do I find the information in the library? Do I manage to roll under the closing door and stab the guard at the winch?
Opposed Tests. Opposed tests are compared against another dice roll. Winner takes all in an opposed test. Opposed tests are used most commonly in combat.
Consolidated dice rolls. What the measures of success mean is that the one dice roll tells you everything you need to know. No slowing things down to roll other sets of dice, or add other numbers.
You define the world. You create the skills, traits, and resources. We provide plenty of examples, but you come up with defining who and what your character is. Want to be an expert in tracking other people? The skill could be manhunter, or tracker, or scout. The trait might be keen eyes, sharp nose, or wind-reader. Each may do slightly different things based on the intent. A manhunter would have their skill apply as bonus dice when tracking humans, but would be more restrictive when tracking in the woods.
Class-less and customizable. Freely pick how your character will develop and customize them with a classless system. Pick the skills and traits you want. Be a stealthy rogue who fights with a two handed axe, or a front line fighter who uses daggers.
The Gamemaster
As Helheim Unbound is the core rules for gameplay, we have devoted over half the book as advice and guidance to the Gamemaster. This includes help on setting test difficulty, ideas on creating creatures, and what to do if a skill is too powerful or too weak.
Kickstarter campaign ends: Fri, June 15 2018 6:00 AM BST
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