d100 - Mercenary Minutiae & Sellsword Specifics

Eventually, games might reach a point at which the Players will seek out Mercenaries to assist them with achieving certain goals/aspirations. For when this occurs, I wanted to provide a few Resources for generating those Mercenary Companies, so I set about alloying a few existing tables, and even ended up hammering out a new one.

These will all eventually make their way into a “Mercenary Company Generator” I’m working on, but for the time being the newly minted Table is below. I have many thoughts on how to use Mercenaries in these games, but I’ll likely save those for a separate and more dedicated post.

d100 - Magical Axes

Another Random Table devoted to those marvelous Magical Items. This time we have One Hundred Magical Axes. Just like with my other magic item tables, these can be used to embellish that bog-standard bonus in order to make for a more intriguing and wonderous weapon should it be needed. As always, feel free to season some of these to taste in terms of potency, duration, or frequency of use.

d100 - Monster Special Defenses/Other Abilities

Going through some of my Tables, I found one that did not get published when it was finished quite some time ago. It is a simple affair: Just a d100 list of Monster Defenses and Other Special Abilities that might work well in conjunction with my Monster Special Attacks Table or even my Fairy Tale Weaknesses. My intent was to whip up a perchance generator at some point that just spits out Monsters using these tables to see what shakes out, but I obviously became distracted from this goal and it languished in my drafts folder.

So here it is, ready to finally see the light of day. I have not given up completely on the idea of a Monster Generator, however, but that may have to wait until I finish a few more Tables that can contribute to other, less mechanism focused things that I tend to find useful in Monster Descriptions.

d100 - Retainer Refusals & Hireling Hang-Ups

Although I do have a few prior Tables that are focused on fleshing out those “Followers” in compelling ways, for this one I decided to focus on traits and temperaments that might have the potential to create some real conflicts or discretely limit options in order to generate what might be “interesting” situations in Play.

This dovetails a bit with my overall philosophy that Hirelings/Retainers should not be thought of as robotic automatons or trap-springers: Often their sense of self-preservation should be just as strong (if not stronger sometimes!) as that of the Player Characters. Whilst risking life and limb might be par for the course to wrest those Rewards from Dangerous Places, there are lines that some simply won’t cross. This table should provide a bit of fun fodder for defining those, with the idle hope that over time, some of these “Retainer Restrictions” might even make those “Meatshields” at least a little more memorable. This could also work quite well if a Party has worn out their good-will with a local Settlement’s potential applicants, and when only the unqualified or unsuited respond to their Call to Adventure!

Naturally, I leave it as an exercise to the Referee whether or not these might come up during the Hiring Process. For some entries, the inhibition might be more obvious than others or there might be Clues. Others might work a bit better as a rather rude revelation once the Adventure has begun!

B/X Procedural Flow Charts

For a little while now, I have been working on a series of Flow Charts that illustrate some of the basic Procedures present in the B/X ruleset. While the list-based Presentation might be adequate for some Referees, I have found that being able to visualize how these operate and the “loops-within-loops” they can create in Play is extremely helpful. It also makes it quite easy to see which steps might be commonly elided due to Fiat, when one compares them to how they typically oversee situations in Play.

In the following document I have outlined:

• Dungeon Turn Sequence of Play
• Evasion & Pursuit: In The Dungeon
• Wilderness Daily Sequence of Play
• Evasion & Pursuit: In the Wilderness
• Waterborne Daily Sequence of Play
• Evasion & Pursuit: Waterborne
• Encounter Sequence
• Combat Sequence Per Round

Without further ado, here are the Flow Charts in their current Draft State. I hope you find them as helpful as I have for illustrating the order of operations for those common game-play loops and situations!

Let me know if you have any interpretations of these Procedures that might differ! I am always interested to hear those. These attempt to adhere to the Rules-as-Written, but they still serve as excellent bones and scaffolds to build Play around. I tend to cleave pretty close to these in terms of the Procedures I use, but naturally, a few adaptations and minor elaborations are bound to creep in and become incorporated over time.

d100 - Intriguing Incense Or Curious Candles

Single-Use, Consumable Magical Wonders have always been some of my favorites, especially when they present the Players with incredibly specific solutions to hereto unknown problems. There’s an immense sense of satisfaction when you happen to have just the right tool for the job, or the final piece that helps a plan or scheme succeed.

As I was thinking about these sorts of things, I decided to do a Table of Incense or Candles. These items may be burnt (and consumed) to produce a special effect but are generally temporary in nature: lasting only as long as the Candle burns, or the incense remains fragrant. Requiring a source of Fire, and hampered by damp or windy conditions, activating these can sometimes be a challenge in itself. I imagine the radius or duration of effect might be rather limited as well in most cases.

Here are a hundred ideas for adding these kinds of flammable wonders to those Treasure Hoards. Potentially those with specific knowledge could even manufacture these (via Magical Research, or perhaps by acquiring special Reagents), or the less spectacular/more utilitarian entries could even be found for sale or barter by specific Vendors (Incense Mongers in my games always only accept Electrum).

d100 - Holiday Happenings & Festival Features

Below is a d100 table that might be useful for sprucing up Holidays, local Festivals, or other unconventional Customs. I am always eager to pepper the Calendar with various Special Occasions throughout the year, as these can lend a lot of character to a place and time. Naturally, some might end up with the Player Character’s hopelessly embroiled in these customs or situations, but sometimes that kind of distraction is an entertaining one.

d100 - So You’ve Been Brought Back From The Dead...

Certain magnificent Magics and marvelous Miracles make it possible to return a dead Character to Play in these games. In some games, this process is pretty perfunctory: Simply locate your Local Lama and acquire a casting of Raise Dead within the Time Limit. Then after a mandatory two-week recuperation period (during which the Character is hardly in a state for Adventure: with only a solitary Hit Point, half movement, no carrying capacity, they cannot attack, and are unable to use Spells or other Class Abilities) the revivified is right as rain.

Later, when the Players gain access to these Spells through their own Resources, it tends to further emphasize that this Death is merely a speed bump, a temporary set-back with a well-earned vacation perhaps, but the Character will be back in no time.

I have always thought it might be more interesting if the process left a little mark here and there on those who underwent something so significant, so here is a table of one hundred potentially interesting concomitants for that process. These might work a little like Curses (and this could even work alongside that dreaded Energy Drain as well, q.v. my Rumored Cures for more on this) and have their own Durations or Required Deeds to overcome, or they could become a permanent part of the Character in a way (some more of that lovely “Foreground Growth.”) I think in creative hands, a few of these could even be spun into Boons with the right application or in certain situations. I tend to prefer that sort of “Drawback” after all.

d100 - Vernacular Coinage & Specialized Specie

Most of the time, the kinds of coins the Players end up stuffing in their Pouches and Pockets might be a little uninspiring with just their two-letter abbreviation to differentiate them. Sure, we’re always quite careful to enumerate the type/metal composition for value purposes, but what other things can these coins tell us?

Here is a table with some ideas. These could serve as “Common Names” for coinage in a region, decorations for Heads and Tails, or also potentially a window into the culture that minted them in the first place. What people put on their money usually tends to align with other values that they want to extol or claim to possess. Vernacular names could come up during transactions when the Party travels to a new Region with its own types of currency, and sometimes the “motifs” and decorations themselves end up deliciously muddled through trade. Ancient Coins retrieved from forgotten Hoards might provide a window to those who traded with them. I suppose one might find this table useful for embellishing various other things in need of a little more specificity on demand (constellations, heraldry, artwork, etc.)

d100 - Magical Spears

Here are a hundred more ways to flavor some of those Magical Weapons that might end up in those Happy Hoards or the Hungry Hands of Plucky Players: Magic Spears!

d100 - Boastworthy Bounties & Intriguing Enticements

Bounty Hunting and Monster-Slaying For Hire are sometimes useful ways for Players to augment their coffers as a periodic change of pace from those unplundered Dungeons. Particularly during the Wilderness Tier, where Treasure can sometimes be a little trickier to track down, these avenues are sometimes more appealing than other lucrative options like turning to Banditry.

There is usually a Reward in the form of Treasure, sometimes pre-arranged, other times negotiated. For these, I often select a Treasure Type (usually based on the Average Values) that seems appropriate, but I do like to often include an occasional “pot-sweetener” that might make a particular job a bit more attractive.

This table includes a hundred Sample Bounties, issued by anachronistic “Wanted Poster,” Proclamation, or even as Rumors/Hooks. I have also included a hundred sometimes less tangible Treasures that might tempt in addition to the more Monetary Rewards. Whether a Bounty is paid when the target is returned “Dead” or “Alive” is up to you, but I think “Alive” does add an intriguing wrinkle sometimes 😊

d100 - Some City Streets

When Adventure whisks the Characters into Urban Environments, I often find it convenient to have some serviceable Street Names at hand. Navigating those places can get a little more interesting by using Landmarks, and in their own way, those Named Thoroughfares serve this function well. They are also immensely useful for when the Players have the rare good sense to query a Local or NPC for Directions. I’ve provided a starting point with two-hundred here, the left-most ones are perhaps more appropriate for the more Sinister or Shady sections of a settlement (after all, quite a bit of excitement tends to happen in those places,) and I threw in another hundred Embellishments that might work to dress up a few descriptions as the Players make their way around.

d100 - Anywhere But The Tavern: Session Starters

Here’s a d100 Table that features some additional ideas for starting a Session, Campaign, or Adventure outside of the rather timeworn “Tavern Meeting” set up. Many of these might make for a more in medias res approach, but I sometimes find that placing the Players directly in the Action can be an exciting way to start things off.