d100 – What Happens When I Drink The Goo?

Came up with a quick one for all those intensely interesting situations where a Brave or Foolish Player decides they are really willing to interact with the environment in the time-honored tradition. So, here’s a list of potential effects when they decide they want to “drink the goo,” “kiss the statue,” “deface the altar,” “whet one’s whistle with this strange pool,” or otherwise meddle with things where a high degree of Risk and Reward might lie.

These Players are sometimes affectionately referred to as "Goo Drinkers” and they often manage to really enrich an experience for all participants with their desire to “Drive that Character like a Stolen Car.”

For those who want a bit more weighing than one in one hundred, I’ve endeavored to keep the more beneficial effects to the first 30 or so, while the baleful ones could be generated with a d30+33. The rest are more “neutral” for the most part (and could be determined with d30+66 I suppose). But as always there’s sometimes something of a Curate’s Egg in most of the malevolent ones, if you squint. I have never been much of a fan of Dungeon Features that consistently punish Player Interactions, so having a few quite Wonderful Outcomes alongside the Woeful Ones can definitely keep that experimental drive alive.

d100 - A Juxtaposition of Jellyfish

Here is a fun one! A fellow Referee is running an “Ocean Themed” OD&D Campaign and requested some assistance with generating interesting Jellyfish for the Adventurers to encounter. When I heard that there was a D&D game themed around exploring the Ocean, the first thought that came to my mind was this old meme:

My first Random Encounter with a Jellyfish was pretty memorable: My father was stung quite severely by one at a beach when I was very young and required medical assistance from a Lifeguard, so I was always oddly angry with them, despite how compelling and beautiful they can appear to be.

Much like my Remarkable Birds or Fantastical Fishes, this seemed like a fun opportunity for more of a “Generator” approach. I’m not sure the math works out to be quite 12 million, but this should be a good starting point at least! 😊

I like to include a handy dandy “One Click” Generator for these types of tables:

d100 - Assorted Alchemical Gimcrack & Enchanted Ephemera

Here are a hundred Minor Magical Wonders that didn’t quite fit nicely into lists of their own. The intention was to provide some ideas for stocking the shelves in your typical “Magic Shop” or some trinkets to represent an Itinerant Alchemist or Medicine Show's Wares. Most of these are intended to be single-use and not too terribly expensive. They fall under the framing of permitting the Player Characters to spend some of their hard-earned money in order to potentially improve their chances of success in an Adventure. As always, most are very specific Tools for Problems that are undefined, so it is often up to the reader to imagine situations where they might be found to be extremely helpful to have on hand.

As I rounded it out, I began to notice that many of these items might serve as a substitute for systems that invoke Cantrips to perform minor magical deeds, or some could even stand-in for those neglected “utility” spells that often go unprepared. If you decide that these aren’t too dreadfully dear in price, they might even help pad out a party’s arsenal to make a Magic User feel more Magical at those lower levels. Prices, Availability, and Reliability can always be seasoned to table taste.

d100 - How Do Those Wizards Know Each Other?

Recently when re-watching The Last Unicorn for the umpteenth time, I noticed something interesting in a scene I know I had seen so many times before:

In King Haggard’s Court, when Schmendrick seeks the role of King Haggard’s Royal Magician, Mabruk is summoned and seems to already *know of* Schmendrick, greeting him with a “My Dear Boy!” and everything. It started me thinking about the implications of a Setting where each and every practitioner of the Arcane Arts knew each other in some way.

So here are a hundred potential ideas for those Magical Meetings or serendipitous situations where Sorcerous Paths may have crossed prior. There are obvious interactions one could exploit with the Mentor/Apprentice Relationships, but some of these get a little more specific. Seems like it might work a little better in those Worlds where Magic is a bit more Wonderous and Rare, but the opportunity for those kinds of interesting NPC and PC interactions seems just far too tempting not to try out once in a while.

d100 - Where Does That Lamp Oil Come From?

Sometimes, I like to confront a few of the curious questions that occasionally come up in various Settings. This time I decided to tackle that ubiquitous Lamp Oil, filling up all those Flasks flung over the years or reliably illuminating the way via Lanterns. Where does it come from? Who makes the stuff? Why is it so ubiquitous? This table contains a hundred less-conventional notions on how it’s derived to make a given Game World a little more interesting.

d100 - Magical Masks

Earlier today I was tagged in by Eldritch Fields for a blog bandwagon concerning Masks, so I decided to whip up a quick d100 Table with some ideas for Magic Items that fit that theme. These sorts of Wearable Wonders are rather rare in my games, so hopefully now that I’ve ruminated on them for a bit that will change!

I hereby tag in Cascade Fault to make a Mask and keep them coming!

d100 - Magic Bracers & Bracelets

Here we have another hundred Magical Items, this time focusing on those Bracers and Bracelets that might be masquerading among the Jewelry in a hard-earned Hoard. My hope is that you find something interesting to adorn those Characters wrists with a little more Wonder!

The Magical Item Generator has also been updated with these entries.