Here’s a quick table that has somehow managed to evade posting for some time now. This itemizes some of the Monster Special Attacks found within the B/X and OSE rulesets. I’ve found it useful in conjunction with a standard Stat Block (such as the classic “Just Use Bears”) for creating new and unexpected Monsters for the players to face off with. Reconciling these abilities can sometimes lead to interesting physical traits, which in turn can influence the description of the Creature 😊.
Confession Time: I’ve always found myself to be very fond of Spell Components, even though tracking such things is often a bit too fiddly for the tastes of most tables. Rather than making them a necessary requirement to cast a given Spell these days, I find that they can still serve a purpose if used in conjunction with standard casting by boosting the effect, duration, range, or modifying other mutable parameters of an appropriate Spell. By making them desirable instead of mandatory, players seem to enjoy amassing and keeping track of them a little more. They also serve as a great hook for potential Adventure: If rumors swirl about a particularly powerful ingredient for augmenting Magical Might, some Wonder Workers will immediately start scheming towards its acquisition. Knowledge of these also makes for a handy Treasure or Reward for Referees to dispense occasionally.
Another use for these that we’ve adopted is tying these elements to Magical Research and Manufacture. I usually handle this by offering a discount on either Time or Cost if the appropriate additive is applied during the process. If Spell Acquisition in your game is limited to Mentors/Magical Research Only, this provides a pretty powerful incentive for a Magic User to consult those Tired Tomes and Stuffy Sages in order to identify that certain special something that might make this process swifter or less expensive. Some Magical Items also receive similar reductions in outlay if the proper Reagents are used during the creation process: Scrolls, Potions, Wands, and other sundry Wonders that incorporate these constituents are more easily produced.
To create some of these materials, I often use some of my generators: Magical Herbs & Plants or even feathers from one of my Remarkable Birds, but one of my favorites is having them harvestable from Monsters, because this makes them more of a byproduct of play for the entire Party and less of a goal for an individual party member.
Here’s a list of One Hundred Monsters with some of their Parts of interest, alongside some potential Thaumaturgical Interactions. As an added wrinkle, not all require butchery to acquire. The keen eyed may notice a glaring omission in the form of the Monster who directly contributes to the namesake for most of these games, but fret not: I intend to devote an entire table just to them with 100 Uses for a (Dead?) Dragon.
Happy Friday! Here’s another table for sprucing some of the water-bound animals your players might encounter or seek out during their travels. Akin to my generator for Remarkable Birds, this kind of set dressing and these in-world “Common Names” can sometimes add a little bit of fun or interesting detail to the Wilderness Foraging, Catch-monger Stalls, or even the occasional Wave-Crawl. One column might also be useful for quick descriptors of seafood dishes the players might deign to dine upon.
I’ve also included a handy Perchance Generator below to speed up generation of these aquatic critters.
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ounding off this little run of tables, I decided to dust off another that’s been lingering in development for far too long. I’ve always been fond of unique Magic Users, but most of the time I don’t use or create a new Class/Subclass for them. There’s a significant amount of customization that can take place elsewhere to capture a different feel for a Wonder Worker, and in addition to just modifying Spell Lists/Creating New Spells, I like to tweak their process of Preparing Spells.These modifications are mostly cosmetic in nature and I’d assume that whatever materials or paraphernalia affiliated with these consumes about as much Inventory Space/Encumbrance as a standard Spellbook, and perhaps even possessses a degree of similar fragility. Losing a Spellbook is never fun, and I’m sure there are interesting and creative ways Players could discover that would end up with them losing access to some of these.
As I was working on this, it struck me that it might perform a bit of lovely double duty as a list of strange Rituals associated with woefully un-specified Spell Acquisition or under-detailed Magical Research as well. If the more traditonal Tome is still your personal preference, please see my previous One Hundred Grimoires Post for some ideas on how to snazz these 😊.
Musing the other day about Randomizing the Players’ Starting Equipment (why would this Magic User have a suit of Chainmail Armor?) got me thinking: What if some of a Character’s Initial Gear could serve as a bit of double duty somehow? It would be fun if one of the items they began play with had a little History, or even maybe an Adventure Hook/Rumor/bit of Mystery to pursue right out of the gate. As a big proponent of a more Sandbox-style of play, one can never have enough seeds to broadcast into those initially fallow fields in hopes that something sprouts, so naturally I felt another table was in order 😊.
At first, I had contemplated dividing this up into categories like Weapons/Armor/Tools and such, but gradually started leaning toward attempting to make the entries at least somewhat applicable to all (as you never know what the players will decide to spend that 3d6 x 100 on or select from my Quick Equipment & Encumbrance Sheet). Some Referees perform this Shopping portion of Character Generation in play, and not all of these may be appropriate with that method, but there could be some inspiration found below for roleplaying cues I suppose.
Gut-feeling tells me that these would likely work best with the more durable pieces of gear on the Adventure Equipment list of your choice but it might lead to interesting situations to attach something like this to a consumable like a single Torch or Arrow. Could lead to a tough choice down the road eventually.
I do have an additional d100 for Equipment here, but this list doesn’t include the “bread and butter” of Arms and Armor. Updated: with Perchance generator below.
Should you find yourself in need of a locally worshipped, minor Godling, here’s a table to help with defining their Domains. Perhaps not worshipped in a conventional sense by Clerics (though I don’t see why these wouldn’t work within the context of my system for Holy Taboos), these divinities govern what might seem like mundanity on the surface, but feel free to make them more important as necessary. Do they grant the occasional prayer of coincidence or serendipitous blessing? What sort of modest offerings does one tenderly place before their humble shrines?
I also managed to squeeze in a hundred names should you find yourself at a loss for one. And yes, I decided to do the entries within this table in couplets because I’m apparently a glutton for punishment 😊.
Folk and Fairy Tales abound with foes that can’t be bested in conventional ways. Some of the standard Monsters have a few hints of this quality: Lycanthropes and their susceptibility to Silver, the traditional Vampire vulnerabilities, etc. These all help grant things a more folkloric feel and generate minor puzzles/mysteries for the players to solve.
Occasionally, it might be interesting to provide a Monster with a special Weakness or Achillies Heel, some form of flaw that might be exploited or sometimes serve as the only method of defeat. So, here’s a list of One Hundred Fairy Tale Weaknesses that might be useful. Sometimes discovering such secret things can even lead to adventure along the way. Some of these feature a little bit of ludic bleed (relying on things like Die color, or other things at the table itself), but I find that can sometimes be rather fun in moderation.