12 Goblin Gadgets

1. STEAM-POWERED CORK SCREW – Multi-purpose tool for aged wine and tonsured heads.

2. U-SHAPED Electro Magnet – Mounted, U-shaped turret that’s great for those pesky armored warriors.

3. ROCKET BOOTS – 1 in 6 chance per turn to crash into a wall.

4. SEGWAY – The newest in dungeon-safe chariots.

5. COFFEE-MAKER – Orcs will pay handsomely for freshly brewed rage-muck.

6. FLAME THROWER – 3d6 fire damage to all within 15’ cone; explodes on natural one.

7. STEAM-POWERED GRAPPLING HOOK – Hauls up to 3000 GP in weight.

8. ROBOTIC POODLE – 2HD, 1d6 bite; barks, yips, and enjoys its metallic tummy rubbed.

9. JACK-HAMMER – Hard hat and yellow caution tape included.

10. GYROCOPTER – 2 seats plus 600 GP storage. 1 in 6 chance per turn to crash into a wall.

11. MODDLE TRAIN SET – Goblins love their strange collections of odds and ends.

12. FAN TURRET – Redirects arrows; 1 in 6 chance to blow away magic-users.

Rehashed Tables for Castle and Village Occupants

Here are the tables I've been using for stocking castles and villages around the wilderness in conjunction with "The Wilderness Architect." 

My intent with these tables was to make them a little less overtly magical, so fewer chimera or basilisk guardians, and more complete than the ones presented in Underworld and Wilderness Adventures.

Castle Occupant

Castle occupants are generally high level NPCs retired from adventuring, warfare, and other similar activities where experience may readily be gained.

Alignment should be rolled, not only for Lords, Wizards and the like, but for each classed NPC or group of like NPCs within a castle, town, or village. This creates a sort of factionalism that will lead to more interesting scenarios later on.

1	Lord		1, 2	Lawful
2	Superhero		3, 4	Neutral
3	Wizard		5, 6	Chaotic
4	Necromancer
5	Patriarch
6	Evil High Priest

Other Residents

In typical castle, 30-180 men will man the walls, half of whom will be crossbow armed light foot and the balance will be heavy foot. There is also a chance that there will be others in the castle’s party:

Castle Resident	% Chance of Having	Level
Fighting-Men	75% chance for 2-12 Knights	3-6
	25% chance for Magic-User	5-8
	50% chance for Cleric	3-6
	5% chance for Monsters
Magic-User	50% chance for Fighting-Man	5-8
	50% chance for Apprentice	4-7
	10% chance for Monsters
Cleric	50% chance for 1-6 Assistants	4-7
	50% chance for 3-18 Fighting-Men	2-5
	5% chance for Monsters	N/A

Fighting-Men will typically be formed into an order of Knights or Templars, who may be sent out on quests or crusades and act as commanders in the ruler’s army in war times.

Monsters should be rolled based on the type of hex terrain the castle is built on from a list of like-aligned monsters. Thus a Chaotic ruler will be served only by Chaotic monsters while a Lawful one by Lawful monsters.  

Town and City Residents

There is a chance that villages, small towns, large towns, and city will small percentage of local Fighting-Men, Magic-Users, Clerics, and Thieves. Residents of these classes will generally form themselves into companies, guilds, and churches if there is enough of a certain class or warrant such. Alternatively, Fighting-Men may be of lesser nobility lording over the village. Levels will be from 1-4.

	Fighting-Men	Magic-Users*	Clerics*	Thieves
Village	10%	5%	5%	-
Small Town	25%	10%	10%	10%
Large Town	50%	25%	25%	25%
City	85%	50%	50%	50%

* Use column for Fighting-Men if castle occupant is over this class.

Magic Items

Castle rules and other resident NPCs may possess magic items with a chance based on their level and type based on class.

Fighting-Men have 5% chance per level for…	Armor	Shield	Sword
Magic-Users have 5% chance per level for…	Wand/Staff	Ring	Misc. Magic	Potion (1d6)
Clerics have 5% chance per level for…	Misc. Weapon	Armor	Shield	Staff
Thieves have 5% chance per level for…	Ring	Sword	Misc. Weapon

  

Galactic Colonization Game

[I've finally figured out how to use labels in the new blogger set up. So you all should start seeing those starting to pop up again.]

Now that I'm running the Vats of Mazarin for ConstantCon, at least for the time being, I'm going to stop posting in-depth updates concerning its development. I'm perfectly fine with and would even encourage anyone whose read everything I've ever posted concerning my new megadungeon to play in the pick-up games, but at the same time I don't want to run out of cards in my hand.

Thus, I'm going to switch gears completely. To what, I'm not sure about.

Back in high school, I had an idea for a game where earth was becoming increasingly uninhabitable. Seeing Earth's distress, a group of benign aliens made contact with the most powerful nations on the planet and offered to solve all of their problems. However, the aliens were turned down by the terrestial governments, preferring for the planet to go on as it always had. Instead, the nations of Earth set up a new program to allow those wishing to leave the planet the training and means to do so with the mission of exploring, colonizing, and investigating another inhabited planet.

The colonists (players) would be give a list of 100 survey questions to complete with additional (and often more specialized) supplies sent for every 5 questions completed.

In my original brainstorming, I decided that it would be the job of one player to create the alien world for the colonists to explore. That, however, proved to be too large of a job and I abandoned the project.

Now, in my new, more enlightened state, I'm considering taking up the project again. This time, however, while the planet would be narrated by one player, the world itself would be created primarily via random tables and referee interpretation.

If I think of some clever way of making this game work, you'll hear more about. If not, maybe I'll revisit it again in 5 years.

6 Jungle Hexes

Brainstorming some ideas for my jungle hex map has lead to creation of a new random table off you readers to plunder, pluck, transmute, and use in your own games.

1. Ancient monolith car a thousand screaming faces. Each face in the shape of a thousand screaming faces. In a bygone age, the each of the visage’s eyes beheld a tiny shining sapphire. Now only 1d8 remain—claimed by the hands of gluttonous thieves. Each sapphire is worth 500 gold pieces, but cursed. After 2-12 days the pilferer will awake that morning covered in a sticky, aqua colored mold. Unless burnt to ash, the mold will, after another 1-6 days, form into a fungal mummy, and will stop at nothing to being about the thief’s demise.

2. An ancient pit, tunneling deep into the earth--much further than torch-light will shine. The pit is a remnant tunnel of a purple worm that roams the surrounding region in search of its mate--who was long ago imprisoned below the earth.

3. A bramble of thick vines that conceals the entrance to a mad-wizard's lair. If the vines are disturbed, they will come to life and assemble into a abomination of swamp muck and thorns: AC 4; HD 7; #AT 3; D 1-8/1-8/1 + poison (save vs poison or die), MV 90' (30'), Save F1, ML 12). Within the mad-wizard's lair is a well stocked library, comfortable living quarters, a summoning circle filled with skeletons of four sets of conjoined twins, and slime filled vats (also used as a kitchen).

4. A skeleton with a gold signet ring. If closely examined, a thief or any character with at least 9 intelligence will notice that the spine has been delicately severed--likely the cause of death. The ring is the symbol of a lost royal line. Whomever possesses the ring can, by "birthright," claim control of a nearby kingdom, but doing so may have dire consequences if the right precautions are not taken.

5. A group of cultists have constructed a giant stone statue in the shape of a kneeling man in the middle of a small clearing. The statue is hollow, but can only be accessed via the statue's mouth. If encountered at night, 3d10 cultists will be gathering for a sacrificial rite. An albino priest in purple and gold robes will be performing a act of human sacrifice from within the mouth of the statue. The cultists are normal, but their leader is a level 7 magic-user.

6. A gold citadel built into the jungle itself. If detect evil is used, the whole site will radiate evil so strongly that the user is blinded for 1-4 hours afterwards. The citadel is barren except for a blind hermit of a lawful alignment - the last guardian of an imprisoned demon. He fights as a level 5 cleric with but 5 hit points, and will defend the citadel against any intruder. If the hermit is killed, a Carcosian beast will be released once again into the world above.

So What's Going On With the Book of Vile Randomness?

Heha...that's an interesting question. I couple days ago I posted an updating saying that there would be some developments concerning the Book of Vile Randomness. Not all the details are finalized, but they're almost there. All I can say right now is that this is going to be big. I'm teaming up with some people that can make this a printed book and provide some excellent prizes for phenomenal entries...with a twist.

I wish I could tell you all what exactly is going on, but hopefully you won't have to wait too much longer. For now, keep those tables coming, I've gotten some great submissions so far. Nice job everyone.