#DICEMBER 5: BLADE

Changing Sword of Rinkiotryk

When Biina the Luckless, medicine woman of the tribal cites of the west, renounced all endevours in the magical arts, she was in no small part motivated in this failed attempt to create a weapon worthy of the champion of the 3rd horde, Rinkiotryk, her sometimes paramour. Instead of filling this weapon with the powers of strength and might, she managed to somehow combine the forces of chaos and order in this strange shortsword. Quite an impressive deed, if only she had tried to create something similar and if Rinkiotryk wasn’t ridiculed for his confusion and changing blade by his adversary Vigunut in the annual gladiatorial games.

In it’s normal state this weapon is a shortsword +2, +4 against dwarves. As soon as a hit is scored, the blade changes it’s size and type according to the following table, depending on the number on the thrown die (or dice). Of course, the weapon is most effective when a skilled fighter wields it, who can use all the possible weapons, but someone wearing a shield or is to small to wield a two-handed sword could be in trouble. Apart from the humilation of wielding a knife right after an impressive hit with a menacing greatsword… The magical bonus is not changed by the transformation, so it is still a useful weapon, when there are no similar powerful alternatives. If the weapon is dropped or lain down it always reverts to it’s shortsword blade.

die or dice	Blade
1	Two-Handed Sword (1d10)
2	Bastardsword (2d4)
3	Broadsword (2d4)
4	Longsword (1d8)
5	Scimitar (1d8)
6	Rapier (1d6)
7	Shortsword (1d6)
8	Dagger (1d4)
9	Stiletto (1d4)
10	Knife (1d3)

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#DICEMBER 4: RAGE

Dandick’s Scalpel

It is told, that when the unscrupolous vivisectionist, murderer and surgeon Dandick was getting old, he started to converse with his scalpel and cut strange runes into his own skin with this razor sharp instrument. He was finally found with the knife, blade enlarged to dagger-size through some unknown magical means, in his back and laid to rest in his familiy tomb together with it. When Dandick’s body was exhumed about sixty years later by the Order of St. Ranadavist to be burned at the stake, the scalpel was gone.

This cursed dagger has no bonus to hit and damage, but is considered magical +3, to determine if a supernatural creature can be hit with it. If an owner enters combat, it is impossible for them to end the engagement before all foes have been killed (even those who try to surrender or flee, as long as they are near enough to catch up with). Furthermore the damage die of the dagger starts to get bigger, if a hit is scored, in the following progression: d4 – d6 – d8 – d10 – d12 (max)

If the damage die shows more than 4 points of damage, the owner suffers the excess as damage as well.

For example, if an owner rolls for damage with a d8, and the result is 6, 2 points of damage are suffered by the owner, and the full 6 points (plus extra damage from strength) by the target.

If you are feeling like it, the dice progression can be expanded. Or just use the idea with a two-handed sword, for extra carnage… 🙂

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#DICEMBER 3: CHILD

Reproduction is something, that has led to interesting philosophical discussions in RPGs – are Goblins inherently evil and is it ok or even neccessary to kill their offspring? Or are they just culturally evil, and can be redeemed? I’m more inclined to the first option – it makes alining and aiding one of the factions in a dungeon more like a treaty with the devil. And it is a part of magic and the factual existence of gods and godesses in religion made more tangible. The other approach is valid, too, and has it’s merits – but evil as in irredeemily evil with relatively weak AND intelligent creatures is not so often explored in fiction, I think.

Anyway, so your orcs are different – but why do they just resemble humans and demihumans in all respects? How about their reproduction? Shouldn’t it be at least somewhat strange? I made a table to determine what and how your orcs are doing (it) and what happens afterward. Just roll on the following table. Bonus points if you roll for dwarves, elfes and other player races as well. The first roll is for a slight emphasis on ordinary methods, the second has a 2% chance for everything and a 14% chance for some combination for more weird results (but still not garanteed). d200 means using a d20 just as a percentile d10 for the decimals. 20 without a 0 on the other die is a 0, but you probably could guess that. 🙂

d200	d100	reproduction
01	01-02	1d6+2 sexes, 3d6 infants
02	03-04	1d6+2 sexes, eggs, gelatinous, inseminated (?) outside of the females (?) body, 5d20
03	05-06	1d6+2 sexes, eggs, hard shell, inseminated (?) outside of the females (?) body, 1d6
04	07-08	1d6+2 sexes, eggs, soft shell, inseminated (?) outside of the females (?) body, 3d6
05	09-10	artistic, a child is formed by it’s community from some substance and comes to life
06	11-12	artistic, a child is formed by it’s parent from some substance and comes to life
07	13-14	artistic, a child is formed by it’s parents from some substance and comes to life
08	15-16	artistic, an adult is formed by it’s community from some substance and comes to life
09	17-18	artistic, an adult is formed by it’s parent from some substance and comes to life
10	19-20	artistic, an adult is formed by it’s parents from some substance and comes to life
11-15	21-22	brood mother, giant unintelligent female birthes all infants for a given tribe
16-20	23-24	brood queen, giant intelligent female queen birthes all infants for a given tribe
21	25-26	budding, small creatures grow on the skin, fall off when they are child sized
22-26	27-28	budding, small creatures grow on the skin, fall off when they are infant sized
27	29-30	cell division into 1d6+2 infants
28-32	31-32	cell division into two adults
33-37	33-34	cell division into two children
38-47	35-36	eggs, gelatinous, inseminated outside of the females body, 5d20
48-57	37-38	eggs, hard shell, inseminated outside of the females body, 1d6
58-67	39-40	eggs, soft shell, inseminated outside of the females body, 3d6
68	41-42	fragmentation, cut off body parts grow into adults
69	43-44	fragmentation, cut off body parts grow into children
70	45-46	fragmentation, cut off body parts grow into infants
71-80	47-48	human is touched by chaos or other magical force
81-90	49-50	magical cauldron changes human adults
91-95	51-52	magical cauldron changes human children
96	53-54	magical cauldron just spits them out
97	55-56	parthenogenesis, females just get pregnant, birthing males and females (1d3 infants)
98-102	57-58	parthenogenesis, females just get pregnant, birthing only females (1d3 infants)
103	59-60	parthenogenesis, hermaphrodites, self-fertilization
104-113	61-62	the usual way, 1d2 children (like 1d4+3 year olds, can walk and talk)
114-123	63-64	the usual way, 1d2 infants
124-133	65-66	the usual way, 2d4 infants
134-143	67-68	the usual way, 3d6 infants
144-148	69-70	the usual way, but marsupials with body pouch, 1d2 very small infants
149-153	71-72	the usual way, but marsupials with body pouch, 2d4 very small infants
154-158	73-74	the usual way, but marsupials with body pouch, 3d6 very small infants
159	75-76	the usual way, but the male creature gets pregnant, 1d2 infants
160-169	77-78	the usual way, eggs, gelatinous, 2d10
170-179	79-80	the usual way, eggs, hard shell, 1d6
180-189	81-82	the usual way, eggs, soft shell, 2d6
190-194	83-84	the usual way, hermaphrodites, both get pregnant
195-199	85-86	the usual way, hermaphrodites, one gets pregnant
200	87-100	Roll two times, either both is possible or it somehow has to happen at the same time

I’ll throw once for orcs, goblins and ogres and use them in my campaign, on the d100 table:

Orcs: 05 – 1d6+2 sexes, eggs, hard shell, inseminated (?) outside of the females (?) body, 1d6

– with …uhm… 7 sexes orc reproduction is complicated and they lay eggs in clutches of 1d6… nice! Probably doing it quite often, because the result is always less children than parents… And half orcs – I don’t really know, and I don’t want to draw a diagram, how they happen… 😉

Goblins: 12 – artistic, a child is formed by it’s parent from some substance and comes to life

– Goblins probably use garbage or mud to create their offspring, and two parents are needed – wholesome family life…

Ogres: 96 – Roll two times

12 – artistic, a child is formed by it’s parent from some substance and comes to life

Uh, interesting, just like the goblins – coincidence? I think not!

and 83 – the usual way, hermaphrodites, both get pregnant

All ogres are hermaphrodites… and they need to construct a child and impregnate each other… Oh, I know, they have to eat the half formed offspring of goblins bevore they can do it – nice symbiotic relationship, if they provide protection for the goblins… or they just steal goblin child mud forms, when they want to become parents.

You heard it here first, this is now canon. ^_^

A late inspiration were the dwarves of Dwimmermount, that create their own children out of stone. Cudos to James Maliszewaki of Grognardia fame. Even though I remembered this after I had the table ready and then I had to change all the numbers again… Not so complicated with LibreOffice Calc, but still… ^_^° This is the reason we have this strange goblin – ogre relationship! 🙂

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#DICEMBER 2: ICE

Second day, second set of funky graphics. This time inspired by an not-so-old D&D-boardgame expansion I bought at some sale. It had a slide on ice generator of some sort, the details are rather fuzzy, sorry. But that thing had just boring directions, so I made a die-drop table.

Just throw the saving throw or whatever die you roll to avoid slipping and falling directly on the sheet and you have an effect at the ready, if it fails. Or, if you for whatever reason don’t like drop tables or are playing on a train, just cut it into pieces and draw one from a bag. But that wouldn’t be dicember sanctioned, so use at your own risk. 🙂

No further effects apart from lying in front of the bloodthirsty yetis…

 

 

Slide in the direction the small arrow points. Depending on how smooth the surface is, distance slid is one foot or one yard (30cm or 1m) per point under the needed saving throw. If someone is standing in the way they have to make a saving throw as well. A foe that succeeds can attack for free one time.

Item in hand is thrown in the direction the small arrow points. Distance is one foot or one yard per point under the needed saving throw as well.

 

Injury (1d6 damage). Maybe less or more, depending on system and ground conditions.

 

 

Broken into the ice (treat as injury above, if the surface doesn’t allow for that). Saving throw the next round to avoid slipping under the ice. Two successfull saving throws in a row to exit the hole without help.

 

Here is the die-drop table as a PDF: IceLetter

And the PNG:

Have fun!

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#DICEMBER 1: AMMO

I usually don’t blog in English, but out of respect for Dyson, I’ll try my best.

In my campaign I use a house rule to determine if a missile that was shot is broken or can be reused – just a roll of a d6, 1 – 3 means it is salvageable. As I read the #Dicember post from Dyson I thought about the first entry „Ammo“ and started GIMP, even though I usually don’t do challenges.

So, I made these pngs for a custom die I’ll maybe gift to my players, and you can as well, if you don’t sell them.

The die is rolled for every missile shot in a given battle. If there is some sort of pressure, like searching for arrows while there still is fighting going on, the die can be used to determine what is found in a round spent searching for arrows.

This side means an arrow can be reused. Pretty straightforward. Is shown on two faces of the die.

 

The double arrows. If these are rolled, two usable arrows are found in a given round – of course not more arrows can be found, than having been shot. Or there is some mysterious arrow coming out of nowhere. Maybe cursed. >:)

A broken arrow, but the arrowhead is still usable. Could be important in a situation with scarce supplies, like deep in a dungeon or the wildernis.

 

A broken arrow with a missing arrowhead. Pretty much useless.

 

Question mark – no arrow is found. Either a missing arrow can be found with subsequent rolls, or it is gone. Still sticking in a fleeing goblin, or it flew down a chasm, or something. Could be somewhere very dangerous to retrieve, in case of a magical arrow maybe even worth the hussle.

And finally I made a dice template to print out and build your own flimsy die, if you like.

Or just ignore all this pretty pictures and use this table instead:

d6	Arrow
1-2	One arrow can be reused
3	Two arrows can be reused
4	Broken arrow
5	Broken arrow without arrowhead
6	Arrow is missing

I wont promise I will continue with the challenge for more than a few days, but I’ll try… ^_^°

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