also here is a whole website that not only has a shit ton of adventures and such but lets you search for any item or npc or whatever and see their stats and info at your fingertips
Inadvisable tabletop RPG premise #137: Ultra-lethal OSR dungeon crawl where every time the group eats a total party kill, they switch to playing as whatever killed them. Brave adventurers all crushed by a descending ceiling trap? Now you're playing as the goblins responsible for maintaining the traps. Good luck!
For clarity, no-one is "becoming" anything. The transfer of protagonism occurs purely at the level of the table – the in-universe party members aren't possessing whatever killed them.
Bold of you not to have them play as descending ceiling traps.
For playability reasons, we follow the chain of causality until we bump into the first set of entities which are a. capable of independent action, and b. themselves able to be killed; e.g., if the party is stabbed to death by bandits, we then play as the bandits, not as their swords. This need not always wind up in the expected place, but it should at least wind up in a place where the new set of player characters can do things!
How does it work when the party wipes to a singular boss (e.g. a classic dragon at the end of the dungeon). Does one player get the boss and the rest its lieutenants/minibosses? Is the gm obligated to reveal that the dragon was part of a conspiracy of dragons? Does the party collectively play the dragon?
You know how a lot of old-school dungeon crawlers address the boss monster action economy problem by mechanically modelling a single large monster as a collection of smaller ones that each get their own turn each round?
(For everybody who keeps asking, if the party manages to wipe because of something that cannot causally be linked to anything that's even hypothetically playable at any remove whatsoever, you roll on the current dungeon level's random encounter table until you get something playable, and that's what inherits player character status by virtue of looting and/or eating your former party's bodies.)
A centaur who convinces everyone they're a real horse. Either with a disguise or using illusion magic, everyone initially believes they just have a fuckin horse companion
Why are they doing this? Could be for a number of reasons. Whether cause centaurs are endangered or for the shits and giggles. This horse is horsing around
For my last two campaigns, there are two rules I've implemented, boons I like to call them
The first is a devils bargain. You ever been in a sticky situation and need a high roll, or a nat 20, to get out? The dice is never on your side when you need it so I have a boon called the devils bargain. It allows any roll to turn into a cursed 20
The downside to that however is that at anytime in the future, I get to have something bad happen. Anything from an awkward roleplay interaction to a life-threatening encounter. There is a way to reverse it however. Before the encounter, I let the player make a save roll. If they get above an 18 then they successfully evade the devil
The opposite of that is the angel's bargain. You can let a good roll go bad in exchange that something really good will happen to you in the future. From an item to valuable information, this doesn't need a save roll before I make it happen.
The two boons do not cancel out, you can have a devil and angels bargain at the same time and they can both be cashed at the same time
The only rule to both of these is that you can't do a random or bullshit roll to cancel or earn one. It has to be a genuine, stakes involved roll
So one of my players got sent to a different plane, and is pretty much stuck there, so the rest of the party will have to try and rescue her; I figure they somehow will have to get their hands on a Gate scroll. Any ideas for where they could find such a scroll, and even more importantly, where would they hear about it? Or maybe what favour would they have to do for the city's resident high level wizard? Thanks so much in advance!
Ally: The Index
" My oh my you don't belong here, which is to say that I don't think I have a spot for you in the catalog, not that you are unwelcome, oh has anyone told you that you are welcome yet? I'd do it but I'm not sure I'm authorized, then again I'm not sure I've not been authorized to welcome you, in which case I extend to you a conditional welcoming and/or unwelcoming depending on privileges pending. If you could find yourself a seat, I'm five eights of the way through constructing an itemized list of the moths I've found in the library over the past year. It should only take another two days, then I'll fetch you some tea.
Setup: Seeking help from a powerful arcanist, the party is pointed towards the home of one Minerva Motteheaper, an archmage famed among the locals for never turning away anyone with a problem. When the party reaches her manor however, they find the place in shabby disrepair, exterior overgrown with moss and ivy and interior thick with dust. Following some of the only signs of habitation, they are drawn to a haphazardly sorted magical library, governed over by an eidetic but scatterbrained construct that calls itself "The Index". Left in charge of the house and mentally overburdened by the sheer number of things that need "sorting", the party will either need to seek help further afield or make themselves useful in crossing a few things off the construct's hastily scrawled to-do list.
Adventure Hooks:
Other tasks on the to-do list include "deal with greenhouse infestation" which will see the party dealing with a foul-tempered fey and it's giant insectoid pets, and "Check on Pinky, basement?" which involves rescuing The Index's pintsized mechanical sibling form a pile of barrels that've pinned it down in the cellar for months. The More tasks they clear off the list, the more clearheaded The Index becomes, allowing it to field their questions and even propose solutions given enough research time.
One section of the List is " Dust the Garnet landing, 3rd floor, CAUTION". Investigating finds the players infront of a fancy mahogany door that doesne't seem to make sense with the surrounding architecture, a bowl of eternally fresh fruit, and a small placard that translates itself into their native tongue that says " You have stumbled upon a landing of the infinite Staircase, if you wish to return home, enter the door and retrace your steps. If you seek something more precious than home, return to the stair and begin walking in the direction you set out in. Rest here if you must, walking the stair is dangerous, you will tire but you will not be able to sleep." Evidently Archmage Motteheaper's home intersects with some kind of "world between worlds", which may lead the party out into the greater cosmos later on.
After The Index's mind is cleared and Pinky is Recovered, the two will ask the party a favor: Neither of them know where their creator currently is, an their other siblings are scattered all about. If the party could help reunite them, perhaps together they'd be able to figure out where the Archmage has ended up.
Background: Like many powerful arcanists, archmage Minerva Motteheaper juggled many responsibilities, from advising the town elders on matters of state, to defending the region against arcane anomalies, to solving the problems of those who'd come to knock on the door of her stately manor. Eventually it all became too much for one person to handle, so Minerva built a series of constructs to help her with the day to day tasks so that she could focus on the things important to her. Several years ago however, the duty-burdened archmage said "fuck it" and teleported away, leaving her mechanical servitors to keep things up in her absence.
Future Adventures:
Thumper the Groundskeeper is actually still on the property. Years ago the stocky, stubborn bot worked itself to exhaustion one winter and ended up falling into the frogpond, in which it has rusted in ever since. The party will need a proper arcane crafter to fix the machine, whether that be from among their own number or seeking one out.
Tall and Spindly Medius was built to provide wisdom to the local authorities, and now occupies a seat on the town council, advising whos ever in charge. Unsupervised, the construct has taken its role a bit too far, and now masterminds local politics through a web of puppets, spies, and blackmail. It has no qualms about helping the party to recover its creator, but it may turn out to be an adversary somewhere down the road.
Battle-ready Ringer was made to be Minerva's personal assistant and bodguyard, but with no BODY to actually guard, the construct has become proactive in hunting down threats in the locality in case they ever become a problem to the archmage after her return. The only way the party will be able to find it is by figuring out which of the bounty missions from the local guild it's recently taken and catching up with it in the field.
For the Asker: Getting just one of your party stuck requires some creativity, especially if that player is still about and able to play while their character remains in the cosmic penalty box. My advice is to let them play AS Pinky ( A small sized Warforged Rogue at level with the party) while they climb the astral staircase, moving through a series of planear themed challenges before they get to whatever dimension their original party member was stranded in. THEN have some fun dropping some exposition about what happened to the stranded character and what strange things might've befallen them in their time away.
All cleric campaign where the gods have been dethroned by some antagonist and every time a cleric casts a spell, they just get whatever their former god can scrounge up on short notice. Could be a spell, could be a brick. hell, could be a stray cat the god saw nearby
A cleric who's actually just a modern-day doctor reincarnated into this medieval fantasy land and trying their hardest not to have an aneurysm while helping everyone. They're only a cleric because the god of medicine loves them so much.
A few months after submitting this idea, I've made it!
I first had to take a list of all 118 historical references in the song (from the Wikipedia page) and turn them, in a localized Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's fashion, into an (ideally) setting-agnostic version of what Billy Joel was saying or alluding to.
Then I had to figure out an effect for each of them, either directly or indirectly connected with the original concept.
Ultimately, I've cut 18 (15%) items to neatly fit them in a d100 roll; most of them had to do with politics, war and the like, since that was the most numerous category; I landed on ones that weren't too widely known, too similar to other items present, or just those that were to hard to convert into D&D mechanics.
I also had to make sure the entirety of the items' effect was balanced (like the original Deck of Many Things) and tracked the main categories that each effect fell into, to ensure enough variety.
You can now download the PDF here, beautifully illustrated by Dusky Cat. I've done some other work for Kelfecil's Tales, so you can check them out too!
💎 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Fountain Harp Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement) ___ You must be proficient with harps to attune to this instrument. This traveller’s harp doesn’t have strings: instead, thin streams of water pour from the top. The streams vanish into nothingness before reaching the bottom of the harp. When played, the harp emits a tone like a raindrop hitting metal. Even if the harp is held on its side, the streams of water fall toward the bottom of the harp. The harp weighs 3 pounds and requires two hands to play. 𝙎𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙒𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧. While holding the harp, you can spend 1 minute playing a special song from it. At the end of the minute, you cast one of the following spells from it (save DC 16): “control water”, “create or destroy water” (3rd-level version), or “water walk”. If a spell requires you to concentrate on it, you must use an action on each of your turns for the duration to continue playing the harp. 𝙎𝙪𝙢𝙢𝙤𝙣 𝙒𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙀𝙡𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙡. While holding the harp, you can use an action to play it and cast the “conjure elemental” spell from it. This version of the spell can only call forth a water elemental, and it doesn’t require your concentration. However, you must use your action to continue playing the harp on each of your turns for the duration of the spell. The spell ends early if you cease to play the harp, at which point the elemental immediately disappears. Once this property of the harp has been used, it can’t be used again until the next dawn. 𝙒𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝘿𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙙. If you’re not in water, you can use action to pluck a string from the harp to cast the “acid arrow” spell from it, using a spell attack bonus of +8; the spell deals no damage if you miss with the attack. If you’re underwater, you can use an action to cast the “thunderwave” spell from it (2nd-level version, save DC 16); a creature that succeeds on the saving throw takes no damage from the spell.
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Whisper it, but this might be the number one most useful and important post on this whole damn blog. I reckon a solid majority of DMs use the tables in the DMG to generate random loot drops, which means that I can write homebrew magic items until the cows come home, but most players will never see them, because they're not on the tables that DMs are rolling on.
Now that this blog is coming to a close, I think it's the perfect time to release these loot tables and look back on some of the classics. o7, Replacement Man, your service was appreciated!
See here for the above-mentioned alphabetical index of all my magic items!
This post is featuring the artistic talents of Lucas Ferreira CM, Lucy Lin, Sirin and Anastasia Pionkovskaya. Much love to all the artists!
The blog is coming to a close? That's so sad, I loved reading all your homebrew, and have already used several pieces in my games. Thank you so much for all the things you've come up with and shared!
Aww, thank you for using my content in your games! I'm always glad to hear that people are enjoying my stuff.
Yes, it's true, I'm retiring from content creation, at least for the time being. The big announcement was last December, but I've noticed a few new follows in recent months, so I figured I'd mention it again for the benefit of people who may have missed that. And to reiterate that these 'one off wednesdays' are actually meant to be a special 'goodbye treat' for you all - as well as a last chance for me to share some things I've been sitting on for a while.
Ultimately, homebrewing game content is something I've been drawn to since I started playing Warhammer 40k as a small child, so it's likely that I'll want to use it as a creative outlet again in future... but I'm definitely done with D&D so, if I do pick up my quill again, it'll probably be for a different system, shared via a different platform.
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