OSE Encounter Activities - Kobold (d100)

From another request, here are some Encounter Activities for the lowly Kobold, even though I really resent that distinction 😊. I suppose I end up running them as the more pernicious Tucker clade: often underestimated and always scheming to wrench some small advantage from a world where nearly everything has more Hit Points.

I’m also an inveterate Kobold purist: only snarling, scaly dog-men need apply. Some almost resemble snub-nosed pugilistic Pugs; others are closer to panting, mangy Chihuahuas. I recommend taking a breed of dog as inspiration to make each Kobold tribe distinctive (the more unusual the better, I like to take them into full on “so ugly their cute” Chinese Crested territory as this only seems to accentuate the likelihood that they’ll be underestimated by the Players).

Teeny tiny dragon-men only succeed in padding an already over-saturated niche occupied by slithering Ophidians, the larger Lizard Men, those fun and funky Troglodytes, and even Draconians and Dragonborn in later days. They deserve a place of their own, and it goes a long way to making the Monster more memorable.

OSE Encounter Activities - Zombie (d100)

Just a quick detour directly to the Monster at the end of most manuals! I know it’s the last one in OSE at least.

I received an interstitial request to create one of these Encounter Activity tables for the dreadful Zombie and was able to complete a d100 table for them fairly quickly. Shambling my way all the way through to the letter “Z” before reaching these oft-used Monsters would have been almost cruel.

Zombies are an exceedingly frequent fail-safe when it comes to Dungeon stocking. What Terrifying Tomb, Creepy Crypt, or Crumbling Catacomb would be complete without a few shambling corpses to give the Cleric something to try and Turn?

Here are a hundred activities you can have your Hungry, Hollow Husks undertake:

OSE Encounter Activities - Blink Dog (d100)

Every Dog has it’s day, and today is for Blink Dogs!

One of very few Lawful creatures in the standard critter list (Did you realize that Neanderthals share this alignment? That’s pretty neat!), encounters with these magical mutts are almost always guaranteed to be unusual and/or tense. I’d try to give them needs, wants, and motivations, but the lack of language might make for some challenging role-playing opportunities. Negotiating is the far better course however, because by-the-book, their pack tactics and namesake ability make for some seriously frustrating foes if fought. I like to give their “blinking” ability a signature sound per pack: Champagne cork popping, paper-tearing, door slamming, etc.

I really can’t peg any mythological antecedents for these creatures, and they may have just been added to create symmetry with the IP-displacing “Warp Beast” after all. I leaned a little heavily into their Lawful nature here, because it certainly makes them more intriguing:

Next, I’ll be working on a request to get together a table for the ubiquitous Zombie, and since they would normally shamble in at the very end of the list alphabetically, bumping them up is probably for the best. I’m also procrastinating on the Pudding since they don't exactly have a lot of personality to go on, and therefore are a little less appetizing. It might need to share space with some of the other “clean-up crew” oozes/slimes.

OSE Encounter Activities - Berserker (d100)

I’m fairly certain that the venerable Quasqueton was my introduction to the concept of Berserkers traipsing about dungeon halls to harry players. Their presence in the description at that initial intersection is still ingenious after all these years, and many forays In Search Of The Unknown have started with a little CSI because of it.

Come to think of it, that encounter a prime example of what I’d love to accomplish with these tables: Creating opportunities for play to progress in completely unexpected directions with a little bit of additional information to spark player interest.

Filled out in a foaming frenzy, here are one-hundred Berserker activities for if and when they end up encountered by your players:

OSE Encounter Activities - Beetles (3d30)

Ladies and Gentlemen…The Beetles!

I’ve always been fascinated by the ecological implications of insects growing this large, and as a casual observer of local coleoptera I’m always surprised at how expressive a bumbling beetle can be. Marching across the ground with gruff territorial determination, climbing and falling from the same slick surface over and over, or even just careening into the same porch lightbulb all night long.

Bio-luminescent beetles are tragically rare nowadays where I live thanks to light pollution :(, but I recall the fireflies from my childhood fondly. Bombardier beetles with their corrosive cocktails are marvels of internal chemistry, and the at least one tribe of Tiger Beetle we have around these parts is just plain gorgeous in shimmering, shiny green.

Hope you consider upping their frequency on your Encounter Tables! These three really just scratch the surface of potentially interesting species: Imagine enormous scarabs rolling boulder sized dung-balls, truly Goliath mandibles capable of crushing Elephants, or even plodding slowly across the countryside on the carmine carapace of a colossal Ladybug!

OSE Encounter Activities - Bats (3d30)

Release the Bats!

These are a staple set dressing for any kind of cavern exploration, but I need to remember to use swarms of them in Forests/Dungeons more. There’s something primally unnerving about a high ceiling extending into darkness, but teeming with chattering life. As a bonus, almost everyone I have ever spoken with is mortified at the prospect of getting them tangled in their tresses for some instinctive reason.

Since these are animal behaviors, I’ve split them up into a trio of d30 tables instead of devoting a single d100 to each (oh brother!) or trying to come up with behaviors that were applicable to all three types:

As always, you can suggest the next entry in the comments. Bears might get a similar treatment (perhaps four d20 tables), unless I need a brief break from mammals and decide move on to Beetles.

OSE Encounter Activities - Basilisk (d100)

Although I prefer the octopod, lizard-like Basilisk, some gaming tables lean hard into the serpentine. Mine prefer to petrify their victims to preserve them (much how a spider trusses up a fly) and have a substance in their saliva that slowly reverts Stone to Flesh so that they can dine at their leisure (harvesting this spittle can take the statuesque sting out of an unlucky encounter, but I’m an inveterate softie, and don’t really relish encounters that grind play to a halt). Feel free to adjust some entries if they don’t quite fit your mythological vision, but I tried to cover quite a few bases here.

Without further ado, I present the OSE Encounter Activities for the baleful Basilisk, bane of many a fortune-hunter:

Might split up the Bat entry into a triptych of d30 tables depending on how fertile I’m feeling.