Saturday, April 4, 2020

d100 trinkets

  1. Pocket knife your dad gave you
  2. Family sword
  3. Silver sword you found in the woods
  4. Pistol your mother left behind
  5. Your ex’s favorite hoodie
  6. Baseball cap from your favorite team
  7. Beanie stitched by your best friend
  8. An unwilling tattoo
  9. A coin that always lands “heads”
  10. A key you never found the lock to
  11. A blue stone that gives you advice sometimes
  12. Poorly developed photograph of a strange land
  13. Your favorite album
  14. Unopened letter from a friend who has passed
  15. Totem that cleanses dirty water
  16. Cloak with a hidden compartment
  17. Pirate brand
  18. Locked spellbook that isn’t yours
  19. Mood ring - shows your mood to others
  20. Small backpack but you can fit inside of it snuggly
  21. Detailed drawing of a demonic ritual circle
  22. Glass jar with a lying spirit in it
  23. Very elegant and terribly ancient spyglass
  24. You get a random potion (d100)
  25. Diminutive lockbox keyed to your fingerprint
  26. Dying MP3 players with your favorite song on it
  27. Locket with a photograph of an older you in it
  28. You have a secret admirer that’s been sending you letters
  29. Fairy blood in a necklace-vial, if exposed to air might attract dragons
  30. 10 gold coins from an era long past
  31. Agora Apocalyptica, a book that describes the end of the world in great detail and mentions your name specifically
  32. Time spinner filled with sand, if smashed will let you act first in initiative order
  33. A small conch that will whisper a secret in your ear
  34. A diary written in a language you don’t know
  35. A small idol depicting a Nightmare that gives you unsettling dreams when you sleep near it
  36. A deed for a parcel of land in a realm unknown to you
  37. An old divination card bearing your likeness
  38. A worn cassette that plays a song you dimly remember from your childhood
  39. A dragon’s bony talon hanging from a plain leather necklace
  40. Blank book whose pages refuse to hold ink, chalk, graphite, or any other substance
  41. A rank insignia from a Mech Pilot
  42. Tiny cage that has no door
  43. Fragments of an unfinished song, written in tablature
  44. Silver teardrop earring made from a real teardrop
  45. An ornate scabbard that fits no blade you have found so far
  46. A bronze pentacle with an etching of a rat’s head in its center
  47. Receipt of deposit at a bank in a far-flung city
  48. Vial of dragon blood
  49. Tiny mechanical crab that moves about when it’s not being observed
  50. Metal urn containing the ashes of a hero
  51. A little black book that records your dreams when you sleep
  52. Key to the family crypt
  53. A switch used to discipline you as a child
  54. MP3 players that plays by itself whenever someone holding it dances
  55. Flag from a ship lost at sea
  56. Small, worn book of pre-war nursery rhymes
  57. Picture you drew as a child of your imaginary friend
  58. Spinning top carved with four faces: happy, sad, wrathful, and dead
  59. Necklace of a sibling who died on the day you were born
  60. Bottle of invisible ink that can only be read at sunset
  61. Spyglass that always shows the world suffering a terrible storm
  62. Black metal cylinder that dictates the history of an unknown plant species
  63. Journal in common, written by someone in a world similar but not quite the same as your own
  64. An instruction manual for activating a mysterious, world-destroying device
  65. An animated map of a mysterious city that appears to be tracking the movement of five creatures
  66. Talking wand that tells you the name of any plant you point it at
  67. Homunculus gum - whoever chews this gum bonds with the substance, which will begin to shape into a small gummy version of the chewer
  68. Duplicator - palm-sized box, put one thing in, get a copy. The copy is hugely inferior.
  69. Hallucinogenic herb, when smoked reveals a ridiculous truth and a ridiculous lie
  70. Tiny clay figurine that can be smashed to cause an earthquake
  71. Mouse-sized collar that will create a force-field if wrapped around a neck
  72. Weird eye-piece that when turned on causes some objects to glow green and others red…
  73. Hollow ball that rolls behind you and never stops trying to follow you, can store a head-sized object or smaller.
  74. Glass container the size of a pop can, holds the “maggot prince” inside
  75. Witch’s Gore Candle, any injuries that happen in the presence of this candle’s light are extra painful, messy, and harmful.
  76. Pocket mirror that functions as normal, but doesn’t reflect anyone looking in
  77. Tiny syringe that can draw up to a bath-sized amount of liquid
  78. Bestiary, allows you to ask me one question about any creature during the game
  79. A top that cannot be spun if there are any invisible things nearby
  80. An old, but entirely relevant, erotica novel
  81. An ultra-rare trading card for a popular trading card game
  82. Necklace of war-era shell casings
  83. Pre-war pamphlet: Signs of Parasitical Infection
  84. Dog tags from the war, you don’t know who the soldier is
  85. Pre-war pamphlet: Against Human Simulacrum
  86. Pre-war pamphlet: The Indifferent Stars
  87. Ornamental switchblade
  88. Worn wanted poster with your face on it, high bounty too
  89. Pair of shot glasses, spent shotgun shells
  90. Miniature chess set, bone and glass, pieces missing
  91. N64 gaming console with a few games but only one controller
  92. Gameboy Color with monster fighting game
  93. Book of Elven anatomy
  94. Beautiful book of the Roaming Fortresses and Moving Castles
  95. Ancient, sealed letter with the nickname of a random PC, in a language that they know. “Dear (PC nickname), I assume you are reading this after entering the Academy. If so, you are only a little behind schedule. Try to keep up. Will see you at the end. - Zygott”
  96. A wedding ring
  97. A pet of your choosing
  98. Journal filled with poetry hand-written in Primordial
  99. Large transparent gem that, when gripped tightly, whispers in Terran
  100. Fallen star made into a necklace

Monday, November 4, 2019

100 unedited anima


  1. truth is a constant force - shotgun, you are unable to tell lies while in possession of this weapon and are compelled to punish liars
  2. honeymoon dream - normal sword that has the ability to ignore armor and gain lethality 10, but breaks afterward.
  3. The most precious piece - It’s the middle to a 9 piece puzzle. Completed, the puzzle acts as a permanent teleportation circle.
  4. evil man's mind - helmet, allows you to transfer consciousness with one sentient being you see
  5. hug it out! - gloves, anything successfully grappled by these gloves becomes pacified until let go
  6. crowd noise - hand canon, the gunshot can sound like anything other than a gunshot
  7. Airstrike - boots, allow you to float continuously up, they don’t allow you to go down
  8. Gigantic - large, aperture-science-esque orb canon, can make one thing LARGE but it must make another thing SMALL
  9. frightful silence - cloak, as long as the PLAYER doesn’t talk, their CHARACTER is completely silent
  10. sigmar's ult - a large gold medallion, will spin infinitely but requires at least two people to spin
  11. the maw of god - gauntlet, stores one item inside the palm. If another item is put in, stored item is propelled out at dangerous speeds.
  12. museum of war - old war banner, turns whatever its draped over to stone.
  13. Dreadclaw - indestructible wolverine claws, the arm that it is affixed to grows a foot of hair a day
  14. vault of the fallen - old war banner, keeps whatever its draped over alive.
  15. the end. - orb, once cracked causes 3D of Mind damage to all those around.
  16. Goblin Emperor - a crown of animate emotion. Wear it and your emotion will be personified as an animal of appropriate color.
  17. Dreadbringer - title, 1/day you can put a living target to sleep (Mind save) or cause horrid nightmares (1D of Mind damage)
  18. Witchfire - a ball of living fire that can locate any fire nearby, and can talk to fire 1/day.
  19. Hive Fleet Issue - allows you to communicate to insects and makes them more likely to follow direct orders
  20. Vindicator's Daughters - pair of bracers, makes your brain twice as large, if two people wear them they can share thoughts
  21. Lunar Matora - half-moon stained-glass shield, shines brightly in the dark and smiles when the wearer is in danger
  22. Hound - helmet fit for a dog, gives them super strength
  23. Mauler 1 - massive gauntlet, if charged for one round it can shove a target with such force that they smash through other objects
  24. Hulk - leather armor, makes you grow twice as large and twice as strong when you become jealous. You also become green
  25. Malediction - hand cannon, lethality 5, deals an additional 1D per death you are currently suffering
  26. Dark Sorcerer - staff, can link with a target to read their thoughts, and if they fail a Mind contest you can put a thought into their head
  27. Whirling Zephyr - tiny hot air balloon that can carry a single person
  28. Zebra - long barrel rifle, alternating shots heal 1, lethality 3
  29. Tyrantosaurus - boots, 1/day you can move 4x as fast and crash through objects
  30. Unbowed - prosthetic limb, shield 1, lethality 2
  31. Danger Days - A pair of goggles that let you see who has an intent to harm you. They glow red.
  32. Reverberation - orb, when cracked, everyone body save to keep hold of what is in your hands
  33. Benevolent Sacrifice - broach, breaks upon suffering a Body death, you can choose to suffer a different death
  34. Vigilance (Duelist) - rapier, when drawn you choose a target, they must face you and only you until the sword is sheathed
  35. Blinking Eyes of the Sun - clock, you can set it to day or night to turn all surrounding light on or off
  36. Dark Sun - clock, at night you can activate it to raise 6 skeleton minions to serve you
  37. Stardust - bag of dust, 3 uses, turns whatever its sprinkled on invisible
  38. Fairy's Bane - short sword, can hit intangible targets and seeks out invisible targets
  39. Mantra of Creation - cloak, when laid out and a name is spoken teleports that person under the cloak if they are willing
  40. Black Cat Eye - if place into your eye socket allows you to see in the dark
  41. Apex Vanguard - tower shield 5
  42. Apex Scout - long sword, lethality 5, when paired with the Vanguard you can attack twice
  43. The Fused Core - Robot brains connected into a rat king. Smarter than most things on an instinctual level.
  44. The Hive Mind - a bee nest that produces 1 use of brain control honey per month
  45. Fated Exterminate - knight’s armor 3, you can take all Body damage that would otherwise affect another target
  46. Sons of Sorrow - crying robot, can answer 1 question about your future per day.
  47. Carnage - mask, allows you to become gelatinous 1/day
  48. The Covenant of Regret - armor, allows you 1 take-back a day
  49. Prey - you choose a target and they are marked so you can track them
  50. Killer Swarm - injects your arm with a swarm of poisonous hornets that follow your command
  51. Rescue Mission - ray gun, choose a willing target, they are teleported back to the community house
  52. The Exile - ray gun, choose a target, if they fail a Mind contest they are teleported back to their “home”
  53. Toxic Waste - green goop, if exposed all people in the area must make a Body save or  mutate
  54. Dreadnought - 3 temporary tattoos, if laid on a sentient target it acts as a doorway into their dungeon
  55. Golem Hive - magical seal, allows you to create a homunculi
  56. Goliath Corp. - lion sash, allows you to talk to felines, 1/adventure you can turn into a lion 
  57. Widowmaker - veil, you can see and communicate with ghosts, 1/day you can become a ghost
  58. Zombie Ward - beacon, creates an aura that doesn’t allow anything without a beating heart to pass
  59. Flamestrike - sword that can become wreathed in flame
  60. Ironbeak Owl - an owl that will bond with whomever wins its trust. It has an unbreakable beak.
  61. Sealmaster Overspark - Orb, floats around your head, if you go unconscious it jolts you awake
  62. Snowcrag Geist -  boots, 1/day you can freeze solid for an entire round, no damage can harm you
  63. Voidfang Champion - purple helmet that turns your arms into snakes.They’re both super old.
  64. Banecaller Apprentice - staff, call the name of the last target to harm you, they are paralyzed for a round
  65. Cabal Shadow Priest - gauntlet, animates your shadow 1/adventure, shield 3
  66. Argent Protector - robot guardian, carries things and compliments you, can sacrifice itself for you
  67. Deck Build - orb, draw a car, if the Ace of Spades is drawn you get a one-word wish
  68. Starry Eyes of Nightmar, Part I - black eye, allows you to see through a shadow and out of another
  69. Plethora of Flames - sunglasses, set objects on fire, the size of the object and the material determine the time
  70. Starry Eyes Part II - white eyes, allow you to travel through a shadow that Part I looks through.
  71. Carcass Jackhammer and Gauntlets - immovable hammer, the gauntlets make it weightless
  72. Grimgrine - green orb, allow you to talk to plants, you grow flowers from your head
  73. The Red Eye - one-time ticket that allows travel to anywhere, but you must sleep a full night afterward.
  74. Oblivion's Embrace - boon given to those who pass Oblivion’s Gate, she hugs your shoulders
  75. Manticore's Bane - helmet made of two faces, the other face is sentient and can communicate
  76. Caldari Dreadstalk - blessing, when you sleep you astral project
  77. Lilith's Eye - eye of the Earth, 1/day see the history of a thing, where, why, how, who?
  78. Crimson Fangs - Gain a vampiric bite that absorbs damage and heals you 
  79. Zarak's Crown - the jaw of a mighty beast made into a crown, dogs fear you but you can talk to them
  80. Scythe of the Dragon Gods - made of dragon hearts, can kill/harm demons, favor with dragon slayers
  81. Dragonfly Nest - orb, can contained one willing target at a time, no time passes for them
  82. Huge Toad - Untraceable storage for any one item. 
  83. Darkheart - a still-beating heart, black ooze pumps out, creates 1 use of poison per adventure
  84. Ectopus - Can bring up to eight people to the afterlife without death once, getting back is more difficult.
  85. Cursefish of the Lake - a strange trout that can hold a lake of water in its mouth
  86. Ogremnoth's Crown - allows your mouth to open up large enough to eat an entire human.
  87. Dirty Birdcage - holds spirit of a messenger bird, can send messages to spirits 
  88. Bustard's Wreath - a necklace, creates two duplicates of you when you are stressed
  89. Blackbird's Hex - boon, allows you to summon a large blackbird to do a complicated task
  90. Cerberus' Chant - sword, lethality 3, 1/day can attack 3 targets at once
  91. Hound's Tail - whip, lethality 1, deals no damage but can restrain one creature indefinitely
  92. Pulverize - hammer, 1/day it can smash through any surface (wall, door, floor)
  93. Nightmare's Favour - boon, allows you to enter the Dreamwave 1/adventure
  94. Breath of the Wind God - cloak that allows you to treat air as water 1/day
  95. Dragon's Blood - highly flammable liquid, spreads quick, burns through steel, 3 uses
  96. Thrasher's Wing - sword, lethality 5, if it causes a Body death it decapitates the target
  97. Mantle of the Thunder God - belt, 1/adventure you can cause a minor earthquake with a big stomp
  98. Brick and Mortar - shotgun, ignore armor, lethality 10
  99. Fog of Despair - banner, when planted fog surrounds the area, planter of the banner can see
  100. Pale Moth's Horn - SUMMON THE PALE MOTH



The edited version of this list will be in an upcoming PDF release. Songbirds is out now, check the sidebar.

Saturday, November 2, 2019

2d6 Potions in the Vending Machine

2 - Bee breath; after drinking, the insides of your cheeks develope (bee) hives and buzz a low, sallow drone. As long as you do not open your mouth, the bees will stay inside and do their work, creating honey-snot that drips from your nose at a rate of 1-drone dosage a day (anyone who tastes your drone dosage becomes a drone to your thoughts for an hour). If you open your mouth, it acts as a breath weapon, but made of angry, jobless bees.

3 - Technolyze; after drinking your conscious is sent into the nearest piece of electronic technology (like a phone or whatever). You have complete control over the technology, can see what it can see, and do anything it might possibly be able to do. After an hour you return to your body. During the hour, your body is inhabited by the technology...so that might be kinda funny to watch.

4 - Crystalized Drunk; the essence of being drunk is to be numb and ever flowing. Now you too can float through the air as a canon ball, crashing into walls and people with such force and not feel a damn thing. Lasts for about 30 minutes then you fall asleep.

5 - Gelly Belly; this small, sentient ooze scoots through your body and cleans all the pipes. Cures sickness and negative conditions over the course of a day.

6 - King Monkey; you grow a monkey tail. It rips through your pants and drags on the ground. If the tail is cut off before the sun goes down, you are cursed to become a monkey every night at sundown.

7 - Disasterflex; you become a walking disaster after ingestion. Every dice roll counts as a natural 1, and anything you do will cause as much damage as humanly possible.

8 - Tuesday; drink this and you'll return to last tuesday.

9 - Jeeshwa; If your name is Josh this drink is half-off. But it's just a normal drink.

10 - Bottled Ghost; There's a tiny spirit inside the jar, which somehow keeps the intangible little guy trapped. If you open the jar the ghost will fly away. BUT if you can convince it to live inside you, then you'll always have a friend :)

11 - Regret; This drink is a little bigger than the others and says "share size" on the label. If you share it with someone, you will learn each others greatest regret. If you drink it all you'll regret all those calories you ingested and probably have a full tum.

12 - Buzzing Little Bumble Bee; When you drink this you must pollenate. Kiss someone and then kiss another to create a strange little hommunculi based on the two people you kissed.

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This is an article from my upcoming Endsville zine.
Until then, checking out Songbirds!

Monday, October 28, 2019

Rooftop Dragons

An apartment complex U-shapes around a tiny garden of slender trees and trimmed bushes. The alleyway walls are etched in vines that bloom the perfect tea-leaf in the spring, and circle up under the gateway arches on either side of the building, finding their way up to the roof, where time itself sits perfectly still, unable to find its voice in the shape of such soft feathers.

When the sun sets, the sleeping minds bleed their dreams into the world as streams spitting into an ocean, but the twisted antlers of the comatose serpent rip into the unseen and dam the streams, pooling it into a delectable pond of random memory. Forever it sleeps and pools and pools, growing and shedding with it until the coiled body might spill over the parapets, like a cup in clenched fist.

They say that it’s not every roof that gets such a guest, but that it happens far more often than you’d want to believe. Dragons themselves being the dreams of a decapitated giant, remembering the ghoulish glares of the world serpents devouring its kin whole. They come crawling from his scalp and into his blood, hungry and thirstily slurping up mouthfuls of the red. They taste his memories and lose just a moment of energy as their bodies rapidly speed into a heat-spawned death.

The lucky ones make it to Endsville and find it in their minds to rest.

Beautiful..

Arcane scholars seek rooftop dragons to find the Pool of Dreams gathered. The juice is pulp and butterflies, and catching it in hand or mouth is a shock of life to the system. Ramping up the brain inside of a softened skull. Ripening it up to crack open and grow the yellow flowers inside.

The blade-kin, flaymakers, and clay dolls seek to dip their weapons in so that they may grow old and give birth to new weapons. Sword begets sword of cosmic fluid that rips through the air by molecule to create a burst of sun and draught. The staff twists inside itself to form an orb of dull, beaming night, eating color and light from the eyes of those around and growing new ones on itself, so that it may become sentient.

The Moon Cats watch these places from the gardens, keeping tabs for their Queen.

This is why there are no Landlords in Endsville. When a vacancy pops up, the antlers of the dragon spread dreams to those seeking. You may pay your rent to the neighborhood council, but you pay the dragon first. If there’s one up there, that is. Have you even gone up to take a look?

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

MUCK session 3

Layout and play-testing continues with MUCK. It is looking beautiful:

That's a dragon!

And the play-testing is going really well. The party is knocking dominoes over. Shaking the foundation. They killed/eliminated one of the witch clans and also led one witch clan to killing the Giant head that likes to play games. 

They haven't left the bottom half of the map yet. They haven't met three of the other factions. And they've already done so much. I'm in love with this adventure location. 

I'm learning more about Muck. The characters there are all very transactional. This for that. Do this and I'll do that. And they all have their secrets. Things they'll do when other things happen. 

For instance - the Ladies of Oolice are all pretty chill and laid back. But when they found out one of the characters had an item that could harm the giant that protected faerie land, they traded as little as they could for it, and went and got some information. 

They didn't tell the party of these plans because, even though they're chill, the party had not done anything for them. The party had the option. They had the head of another witch clan and planned on giving it to the Ladies of Oolice, but instead gave it to another person for a favor. 

So they gained that possible ally, and didn't gain another. 

Everything is transactional. And gaining favor with one might gain enmity from another. 

I'm excited to see where Muck leads and feel that the writing won't be completed until the party leaves.