D66 Badlands Hex Features, and Randomness Thoughts

So, in respect of Prismatic's Blogwagon topic, I suppose I should actually write a bit more on process and methods, rather than just spamming them with random tables. Not that there isn't another random table residing directly below... 

I'm a middling GM and writer, at best. Most of my scenarios and creativity are pretty bog-standard as far as RPG content goes. I crib from better creators wherever possible, and chink up the cracks in material content with my ideas where necessary.

So, I'm not going to come up with any groundbreaking theory or mechanics, just what works for me, and maybe help a dear reader or two.

First of all, for any session or scenario, there is little need to build out bespoke random table contents. With fifty years of publications and web content, there's likely a random table that fits your needs. 

Even the infamous ones...

Plenty of TTRPG books include monsters encountered by terrain type. Sort by HD or whatever criteria, and accost your players' PCs at your leisure.

And, the tables don't have to be fancy. Even for a campaign-level setting, there will be the things encountered more regularly, and a few rarities that may only hit the die rolls a few times. Call them the residents vs the exotics, perhaps. The tribes of orcs vs the one dragon. Grade on a curve - 2d6, 3d6, etc. Again, smarter people than me have expounded on this.

"But what if I want to random some stuff up, Mr. Leicester?" I hear you say. Well then, go for it... with the only real caveat of, "make them make sense."

Looking at my last blog entry, there is The Randomness of the die rolls, with the list of qualities or attributes for each creature. Then, the "heavy lifting" of creating some logic for making that particular arrangement fit into your setting. Particularly for a sandbox-type scenario, where the exploration and encounters themselves inform the larger play (we'll also be delving into this based on our last campaign session...)

And it might not work. Sometimes the dice aren't always right. Regardless, making something out of a bunch of random rolls, be it filling a dungeon, or creating a critter, is still good practice, and an opportunity to keep the brain flexible. 

And I'm sure that I have at least one failed experiment that showed up elsewhere...

Anyway, I was going to expound with more detail, but The Muse just isn't there, plus anything I'd write would just be repetitive and hackneyed with respect to other, better writers. 

So, I guess, in the continued spirit of randomness and making things fit in a world defined by exploration, here are D66 sights and sites within The Badlands of our little campaign. One or two have already been rolled, found, and poked at by the PCs...

Download Me Here

EDIT: For the exploration/emergent style game I'm currently running, the the d66 works well to inform me on the atmosphere of the region. This particular list is a mix of standard trope items, some weirdness, science fantasy. Plus making a list of 36 items is manageable. I'm no ktrey. Like the other d66 tables, hopefully it provides enough breadth of items, but doesn't seem too unwieldy (Mostly one-pagers with a friendly font size). 

Anyway, with a few rolls during play and exploration, the found world will get a bit more populated, and perhaps some connections and history will make themselves apparent from the rolls of the dice. And the deeper the party goes, and closer to whatever lost city(ies) they may find, I'll have some foundations to build on before they get there.

"Check this out, Zanegar, another Edsel!"

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“The Badlands Twists Its Creatures” - Utilizing the Shadowdark Monster Generator

“The Badlands twists its creatures.” This was a rumor (and/or warning) passed on to the Sunday night PCs a few sessions back, perhaps from the nomads. 

Probably just an old wives' tale. Nothing to be concerned about.

Spoilers for my players, so be on your best behavior. 🙄

Second installment in my June Randomness Wagoning... 

Now, my prior campaign players/PCs were no stranger to the mutants engineered by the vivimancers in the mountains. As I mentioned way back when, Jon Becker's "Comes Chaos" and Steven Cook's "Chaos Hordes" were used for all my mutation needs. 

Particular player "favorites" were the Damned Horses, and that one naked guy running through the battlefield who no one wanted to get near. Cowards.

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But now we find ourselves in a new campaign, and a need for new randomized random monsters. In the flavor of Shadowdark.

So cracking open the rulebook, we find ourselves on Pages 190 ("Monster Generator") and 191 ("Make It Weird"). 

The critters were generated with four d20 rolls to get the basic build, and then d3 mutations to spice it up. My initial rolled results are below, followed by some quick thoughts, and the final creation. For the Party Level, I'm assuming Level 3 PCs.

Secondly, they are moving into the "badlands," which I have described as an arid region characterized by canyons, ridges, and natural labyrinths. Creations will be suited to such an environment.

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I rolled/created mostly honest, with one exception...

D66 Lost Cities

First of all, Prismatic Wasteland's current Blogwagon topic is "Randomness" - which means I'm posting sumthin' random...

According to the randomly assigned posting window, I have until the 12th, so there will be a couple more posts to follow this...

Secondly of all, during our Sunday night game, I posited the question of,  "Why do you seek the lost city of X" to my players. Drom, the dwarf desert rider (currently MIA) has his personal quest, so I wanted to poll the rest of the party on what they may hope to find. I'll post their answers in my game report, later.

Anyway, the question came up of "How do we know if we found the correct Lost City?" After all, the lands of the Cold Desert could just be lousy with them.

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"Damnit, Bjorr! This is the THIRD lost city we've found, and STILL not the one we're looking for!"

Anyway, have four d66 columns of fun, with names, reasons for abandonment, current occupants, and reasons to visit!

Download to Discover What Was Lost

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Qua'um's Gauntlets of Arcane Redirection - a Shadowdark Magic Item

These came to me in a dream.

I need more drugs, or fewer...

Qua'um's Gauntlets of Arcane Redirection

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A pair of mail gauntlets, crafted of mithril and embellished with arcane symbols of star-metal. Wearable by arcane spell-casters. The gauntlets will be found with a severed finger stuck into one of the glove's fingers.

The gauntlets were developed as a defensive item against spells targeted at their wearer. 

On a successful spellcasting roll at same Tier as the cast spell, the targeted spellcaster may “catch” the spell and either redirect it or recraft the arcane energies to a known spell of the same Tier for immediate casting. Re-crafted spells require a second successful spell roll. Spells may only be crafted to Tiers accessible to the caster.

If the wearer fails their defensive spellcasting roll, the spell takes normal effect. Additionally, the wearer (d6):

1. Flees, 1d4 rounds
2. Is paralyzed, 1d4 rounds
3. Loses one random memorized spell for the day
4. Is stunned, disadvantage on action rolls, 1d4 rounds
5. Is blinded, 1d4 rounds
6. Casts their next spell at disadvantage

In the case of a critical failure: The wearer loses a finger. At five critical failures, the gauntlets vanish.

Metal, dude.

They Met at a Tavern 28: Side Explorations

Memorial Day Weekend, so the party was mostly partying, except:

• Dan: Kiara, elf Ras Godai
• Seana: Zanegar, 1/2 orc Sea Wolf
• Chris: Thorn, dwarf Wizard

Side-questing, it is...

The trio (and NPC Zet The Conspiracy Goblin) decided to scout the edges of the badlands, hoping to find evidence of paths through the tortuous landscape:

something like this

They were moving along through the canyons and washes without too much difficulty when they crossed paths with a large number of humanoid tracks heading deeper into the badlands. Past experience called these out as serpentfolk. The trio decided to track the band for a while, to see if they could get a sense of their destination. Kiara was able to scout ahead, and the ID of the group was confirmed with a pair of dead serpentfolk, who had apparently succumbed to wounds. After a few hours, the party caught up with a warband of approximately 20 serpentfolk and a handful of pack-lizards. Since there were many more of them than there were of the party, the three chose discretion over stupidity.

Oh, they picked up a shortbow and a few arrows off one of the corpses, since none of the three had a missile weapon, and they intended to do a little hunting.

Backtracking the warband's path, they eventually found a small redoubt built into a cliff-face near the edge of the badlands after spotting a column of greasy smoke. They cautiously approached and were hailed by a guard. Upon closer inspection, they saw the source of the smoke, a pile of burned bodies, as well as several fresh graves.

The place looked like it had just survived a small siege.

some Dyson joint