Sunday, March 29, 2020

OSE Encounter Activities - Giant

Giants make for fearsome foes and even more useful allies if canny Players can find a way to into their good graces.

This is the first of the entries to necessitate a full spread (instead of just a single sheet), because there are half-a-dozen Giant types, and seeing as how they all differ somewhat, I decided to treat them all to a separate d30 table.

There’s always a bit of a “scale” problem when it comes to fisticuffs with these massive Monsters. I have a hard time believing a Human-sized dagger would do more harm than a hatpin in some situations, so another option is to borrow from video games like “Shadow of the Colossus” for truly tremendous Giants, and treat them more like an “Adventure Location” with “Puzzles to defeat.” Flashing “weak points” are optional of course, but there is something deliciously tense about clinging to/climbing on them as enormous obstacles.

All of my favorite folklore stories about Giants always seem to revolve around them being bilked or bamboozled by the Heroes in some way (like bleeding themselves out into a crevasse that connects to the sea, or being “Fin McCool fooled” in a pram), so I like to encourage creative problem solving outside of combat for these encounters. Same could be said for Cyclopes, honestly. Not to mention the utility some Giants might have for Human-sized hands: Their massive fortresses likely have a dire need for Giant Rat pest-control, and who better to squeeze into those massive mouse-holes than the Adventurers (an excellent opportunity to explore scale with some Lilliputian or “The Borrowers” type adventures)? It also must be awfully tricky to count their hoard of coins when they’re the size of the tiny paper circles left over from a hole-punch. 😊

1 comment:

  1. Dropping in from blog There Could be Snakes to thank you for these and for the other content you have posted. These will prove useful. Currently I am using a hacked version of your take on Skills the Middle Road.

    ReplyDelete

Search

Labels

random tables (242) d100 (241) tables (161) encounters (138) OSE Encounters (133) OSE (132) magic items (24) equipment (19) dnd (17) dungeons (17) wilderness tier (17) character generation (15) monsters (14) spells (14) magic (13) wilderness (13) rumors (12) generators (11) house rules (11) gear (10) hex crawls (10) hexes (10) spell features (10) BECMI (9) clerics (9) RC hacks and house rules (8) ideas (8) NPCs (7) advancement (7) dnd hacks (7) magic users (6) names (6) treasure (6) characters (5) cities (5) classes (5) dressing (5) plants (5) resources (5) set dressing (5) yoon-suin (5) animals (4) backgrounds (4) character sheets (4) current campaign (4) curses (4) dragons (4) mountains (4) reviews (4) settlements (4) shrines (4) team tuesday (4) treasures (4) 4e (3) TROIKA! (3) WHITEHACK (3) adventure hooks (3) character classes (3) clues (3) dm (3) dolmenwood (3) events (3) foraging (3) fourth edition (3) goblin project (3) hooks (3) landmarks (3) magical items (3) mentzer (3) potions (3) rules cyclopedia (3) spellbooks (3) transcripts (3) traps (3) villages (3) weapons (3) why tables (3) world building (3) Cairn (2) Dwarfs (2) Elfs (2) ability scores (2) abstract combat (2) adventures (2) armor (2) backstories (2) books (2) cantrips (2) carousing (2) city crawls (2) community projects (2) d&d (2) doors (2) dungeon stocking (2) experience (2) food (2) forests (2) fungi (2) furniture (2) gods (2) gorgon trail (2) harry clarke (2) hazard system (2) herbs (2) hex crawling (2) hex-describe (2) hirelings (2) identification (2) identifying (2) jewelry (2) locks (2) magic systems (2) magic-users (2) magical research (2) mushrooms (2) projects (2) quests (2) reagents (2) religion (2) rooms (2) saving throws (2) scrolls (2) skills (2) tex-crawl (2) toadstools (2) tools (2) traits (2) 20 minute dungeons (1) 5e (1) DR (1) GLOG (1) KtA (1) OSR (1) PCs (1) VEINS (1) abilities (1) adventure seeds (1) alcohol (1) arduin (1) backpacks (1) bags (1) bards (1) birds (1) blessings (1) bookshelves (1) boots (1) bounties (1) bows (1) breath weapons (1) buildings (1) campaign starters (1) camping (1) candace (1) cards (1) cartography (1) character death (1) cloaks (1) clothing (1) coins (1) cold iron (1) complications (1) containers (1) corridors (1) cosmology (1) couplets (1) crowdsourcing (1) d12 (1) d66 (1) death (1) decoration (1) deities (1) dimensions (1) discoveries (1) diseases (1) dogs (1) donkeys (1) downloads (1) downtime (1) drinks (1) encumbrance (1) energy drain (1) fair folk (1) fairy tales (1) familiars (1) fey (1) fish (1) fishing (1) flaws (1) foibles (1) followers (1) foodways (1) foreground growth (1) fountains (1) future campaigns (1) game jams (1) garlic (1) garments (1) gary gygax (1) gauntlets (1) gloves (1) grimoires (1) habits (1) hacks (1) hallways (1) hats (1) helmets (1) hexagons (1) hints (1) horses (1) how tables (1) in medias res (1) ingredients (1) initiative (1) itch.io (1) keys (1) knacks (1) lairs (1) lore (1) magic research (1) magic words (1) mapping (1) maps (1) meetings (1) memes (1) mentors (1) miens (1) miniatures (1) mishaps (1) modern (1) money (1) monster motivations (1) motivations (1) mules (1) mutations (1) new spells (1) obituaries (1) omens (1) overland travel (1) overloaded encounter die (1) percepts (1) perchance (1) perdition (1) pets (1) pits (1) places (1) planes (1) player characters (1) poisons (1) pools (1) portals (1) pouches (1) procedures (1) process (1) protection scrolls (1) purses (1) puzzles (1) raise dead (1) reaction rolls (1) religions (1) reputation (1) rests (1) resurrection (1) rewards (1) rings (1) rituals (1) roads (1) robes (1) rolemaster (1) ropes (1) ruminations (1) seafood (1) secret doors (1) session starters (1) shields (1) shoes (1) shopping (1) side effects (1) smells (1) software (1) song tables (1) songs (1) sounds (1) spears (1) special attacks (1) specials (1) spell casting (1) spoor (1) springs (1) staffs (1) statues (1) stocking (1) stories (1) streets (1) subsystems (1) surprise (1) swords (1) table talk (1) task resolution (1) tells (1) terrain (1) the middle road (1) thief (1) thieves (1) tieflings (1) timekeeping (1) tinkering (1) tomes (1) traces (1) tracks (1) trees (1) turn undead (1) urban crawls (1) venoms (1) vignettes (1) voronoi (1) wands (1) waterskins (1) weather (1) where tables (1) wizards (1) xp (1) ynn (1)

Blog Archive