Friday, January 8, 2021
Saturday, April 4, 2020
d100 trinkets
- Pocket knife your dad gave you
- Family sword
- Silver sword you found in the woods
- Pistol your mother left behind
- Your ex’s favorite hoodie
- Baseball cap from your favorite team
- Beanie stitched by your best friend
- An unwilling tattoo
- A coin that always lands “heads”
- A key you never found the lock to
- A blue stone that gives you advice sometimes
- Poorly developed photograph of a strange land
- Your favorite album
- Unopened letter from a friend who has passed
- Totem that cleanses dirty water
- Cloak with a hidden compartment
- Pirate brand
- Locked spellbook that isn’t yours
- Mood ring - shows your mood to others
- Small backpack but you can fit inside of it snuggly
- Detailed drawing of a demonic ritual circle
- Glass jar with a lying spirit in it
- Very elegant and terribly ancient spyglass
- You get a random potion (d100)
- Diminutive lockbox keyed to your fingerprint
- Dying MP3 players with your favorite song on it
- Locket with a photograph of an older you in it
- You have a secret admirer that’s been sending you letters
- Fairy blood in a necklace-vial, if exposed to air might attract dragons
- 10 gold coins from an era long past
- Agora Apocalyptica, a book that describes the end of the world in great detail and mentions your name specifically
- Time spinner filled with sand, if smashed will let you act first in initiative order
- A small conch that will whisper a secret in your ear
- A diary written in a language you don’t know
- A small idol depicting a Nightmare that gives you unsettling dreams when you sleep near it
- A deed for a parcel of land in a realm unknown to you
- An old divination card bearing your likeness
- A worn cassette that plays a song you dimly remember from your childhood
- A dragon’s bony talon hanging from a plain leather necklace
- Blank book whose pages refuse to hold ink, chalk, graphite, or any other substance
- A rank insignia from a Mech Pilot
- Tiny cage that has no door
- Fragments of an unfinished song, written in tablature
- Silver teardrop earring made from a real teardrop
- An ornate scabbard that fits no blade you have found so far
- A bronze pentacle with an etching of a rat’s head in its center
- Receipt of deposit at a bank in a far-flung city
- Vial of dragon blood
- Tiny mechanical crab that moves about when it’s not being observed
- Metal urn containing the ashes of a hero
- A little black book that records your dreams when you sleep
- Key to the family crypt
- A switch used to discipline you as a child
- MP3 players that plays by itself whenever someone holding it dances
- Flag from a ship lost at sea
- Small, worn book of pre-war nursery rhymes
- Picture you drew as a child of your imaginary friend
- Spinning top carved with four faces: happy, sad, wrathful, and dead
- Necklace of a sibling who died on the day you were born
- Bottle of invisible ink that can only be read at sunset
- Spyglass that always shows the world suffering a terrible storm
- Black metal cylinder that dictates the history of an unknown plant species
- Journal in common, written by someone in a world similar but not quite the same as your own
- An instruction manual for activating a mysterious, world-destroying device
- An animated map of a mysterious city that appears to be tracking the movement of five creatures
- Talking wand that tells you the name of any plant you point it at
- Homunculus gum - whoever chews this gum bonds with the substance, which will begin to shape into a small gummy version of the chewer
- Duplicator - palm-sized box, put one thing in, get a copy. The copy is hugely inferior.
- Hallucinogenic herb, when smoked reveals a ridiculous truth and a ridiculous lie
- Tiny clay figurine that can be smashed to cause an earthquake
- Mouse-sized collar that will create a force-field if wrapped around a neck
- Weird eye-piece that when turned on causes some objects to glow green and others red…
- Hollow ball that rolls behind you and never stops trying to follow you, can store a head-sized object or smaller.
- Glass container the size of a pop can, holds the “maggot prince” inside
- Witch’s Gore Candle, any injuries that happen in the presence of this candle’s light are extra painful, messy, and harmful.
- Pocket mirror that functions as normal, but doesn’t reflect anyone looking in
- Tiny syringe that can draw up to a bath-sized amount of liquid
- Bestiary, allows you to ask me one question about any creature during the game
- A top that cannot be spun if there are any invisible things nearby
- An old, but entirely relevant, erotica novel
- An ultra-rare trading card for a popular trading card game
- Necklace of war-era shell casings
- Pre-war pamphlet: Signs of Parasitical Infection
- Dog tags from the war, you don’t know who the soldier is
- Pre-war pamphlet: Against Human Simulacrum
- Pre-war pamphlet: The Indifferent Stars
- Ornamental switchblade
- Worn wanted poster with your face on it, high bounty too
- Pair of shot glasses, spent shotgun shells
- Miniature chess set, bone and glass, pieces missing
- N64 gaming console with a few games but only one controller
- Gameboy Color with monster fighting game
- Book of Elven anatomy
- Beautiful book of the Roaming Fortresses and Moving Castles
- 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”
- A wedding ring
- A pet of your choosing
- Journal filled with poetry hand-written in Primordial
- Large transparent gem that, when gripped tightly, whispers in Terran
- Fallen star made into a necklace
Monday, November 4, 2019
100 unedited anima
- truth is a constant force - shotgun, you are unable to tell lies while in possession of this weapon and are compelled to punish liars
- honeymoon dream - normal sword that has the ability to ignore armor and gain lethality 10, but breaks afterward.
- The most precious piece - It’s the middle to a 9 piece puzzle. Completed, the puzzle acts as a permanent teleportation circle.
- evil man's mind - helmet, allows you to transfer consciousness with one sentient being you see
- hug it out! - gloves, anything successfully grappled by these gloves becomes pacified until let go
- crowd noise - hand canon, the gunshot can sound like anything other than a gunshot
- Airstrike - boots, allow you to float continuously up, they don’t allow you to go down
- Gigantic - large, aperture-science-esque orb canon, can make one thing LARGE but it must make another thing SMALL
- frightful silence - cloak, as long as the PLAYER doesn’t talk, their CHARACTER is completely silent
- sigmar's ult - a large gold medallion, will spin infinitely but requires at least two people to spin
- 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.
- museum of war - old war banner, turns whatever its draped over to stone.
- Dreadclaw - indestructible wolverine claws, the arm that it is affixed to grows a foot of hair a day
- vault of the fallen - old war banner, keeps whatever its draped over alive.
- the end. - orb, once cracked causes 3D of Mind damage to all those around.
- Goblin Emperor - a crown of animate emotion. Wear it and your emotion will be personified as an animal of appropriate color.
- Dreadbringer - title, 1/day you can put a living target to sleep (Mind save) or cause horrid nightmares (1D of Mind damage)
- Witchfire - a ball of living fire that can locate any fire nearby, and can talk to fire 1/day.
- Hive Fleet Issue - allows you to communicate to insects and makes them more likely to follow direct orders
- Vindicator's Daughters - pair of bracers, makes your brain twice as large, if two people wear them they can share thoughts
- Lunar Matora - half-moon stained-glass shield, shines brightly in the dark and smiles when the wearer is in danger
- Hound - helmet fit for a dog, gives them super strength
- Mauler 1 - massive gauntlet, if charged for one round it can shove a target with such force that they smash through other objects
- Hulk - leather armor, makes you grow twice as large and twice as strong when you become jealous. You also become green
- Malediction - hand cannon, lethality 5, deals an additional 1D per death you are currently suffering
- 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
- Whirling Zephyr - tiny hot air balloon that can carry a single person
- Zebra - long barrel rifle, alternating shots heal 1, lethality 3
- Tyrantosaurus - boots, 1/day you can move 4x as fast and crash through objects
- Unbowed - prosthetic limb, shield 1, lethality 2
- Danger Days - A pair of goggles that let you see who has an intent to harm you. They glow red.
- Reverberation - orb, when cracked, everyone body save to keep hold of what is in your hands
- Benevolent Sacrifice - broach, breaks upon suffering a Body death, you can choose to suffer a different death
- Vigilance (Duelist) - rapier, when drawn you choose a target, they must face you and only you until the sword is sheathed
- Blinking Eyes of the Sun - clock, you can set it to day or night to turn all surrounding light on or off
- Dark Sun - clock, at night you can activate it to raise 6 skeleton minions to serve you
- Stardust - bag of dust, 3 uses, turns whatever its sprinkled on invisible
- Fairy's Bane - short sword, can hit intangible targets and seeks out invisible targets
- Mantra of Creation - cloak, when laid out and a name is spoken teleports that person under the cloak if they are willing
- Black Cat Eye - if place into your eye socket allows you to see in the dark
- Apex Vanguard - tower shield 5
- Apex Scout - long sword, lethality 5, when paired with the Vanguard you can attack twice
- The Fused Core - Robot brains connected into a rat king. Smarter than most things on an instinctual level.
- The Hive Mind - a bee nest that produces 1 use of brain control honey per month
- Fated Exterminate - knight’s armor 3, you can take all Body damage that would otherwise affect another target
- Sons of Sorrow - crying robot, can answer 1 question about your future per day.
- Carnage - mask, allows you to become gelatinous 1/day
- The Covenant of Regret - armor, allows you 1 take-back a day
- Prey - you choose a target and they are marked so you can track them
- Killer Swarm - injects your arm with a swarm of poisonous hornets that follow your command
- Rescue Mission - ray gun, choose a willing target, they are teleported back to the community house
- The Exile - ray gun, choose a target, if they fail a Mind contest they are teleported back to their “home”
- Toxic Waste - green goop, if exposed all people in the area must make a Body save or mutate
- Dreadnought - 3 temporary tattoos, if laid on a sentient target it acts as a doorway into their dungeon
- Golem Hive - magical seal, allows you to create a homunculi
- Goliath Corp. - lion sash, allows you to talk to felines, 1/adventure you can turn into a lion
- Widowmaker - veil, you can see and communicate with ghosts, 1/day you can become a ghost
- Zombie Ward - beacon, creates an aura that doesn’t allow anything without a beating heart to pass
- Flamestrike - sword that can become wreathed in flame
- Ironbeak Owl - an owl that will bond with whomever wins its trust. It has an unbreakable beak.
- Sealmaster Overspark - Orb, floats around your head, if you go unconscious it jolts you awake
- Snowcrag Geist - boots, 1/day you can freeze solid for an entire round, no damage can harm you
- Voidfang Champion - purple helmet that turns your arms into snakes.They’re both super old.
- Banecaller Apprentice - staff, call the name of the last target to harm you, they are paralyzed for a round
- Cabal Shadow Priest - gauntlet, animates your shadow 1/adventure, shield 3
- Argent Protector - robot guardian, carries things and compliments you, can sacrifice itself for you
- Deck Build - orb, draw a car, if the Ace of Spades is drawn you get a one-word wish
- Starry Eyes of Nightmar, Part I - black eye, allows you to see through a shadow and out of another
- Plethora of Flames - sunglasses, set objects on fire, the size of the object and the material determine the time
- Starry Eyes Part II - white eyes, allow you to travel through a shadow that Part I looks through.
- Carcass Jackhammer and Gauntlets - immovable hammer, the gauntlets make it weightless
- Grimgrine - green orb, allow you to talk to plants, you grow flowers from your head
- The Red Eye - one-time ticket that allows travel to anywhere, but you must sleep a full night afterward.
- Oblivion's Embrace - boon given to those who pass Oblivion’s Gate, she hugs your shoulders
- Manticore's Bane - helmet made of two faces, the other face is sentient and can communicate
- Caldari Dreadstalk - blessing, when you sleep you astral project
- Lilith's Eye - eye of the Earth, 1/day see the history of a thing, where, why, how, who?
- Crimson Fangs - Gain a vampiric bite that absorbs damage and heals you
- Zarak's Crown - the jaw of a mighty beast made into a crown, dogs fear you but you can talk to them
- Scythe of the Dragon Gods - made of dragon hearts, can kill/harm demons, favor with dragon slayers
- Dragonfly Nest - orb, can contained one willing target at a time, no time passes for them
- Huge Toad - Untraceable storage for any one item.
- Darkheart - a still-beating heart, black ooze pumps out, creates 1 use of poison per adventure
- Ectopus - Can bring up to eight people to the afterlife without death once, getting back is more difficult.
- Cursefish of the Lake - a strange trout that can hold a lake of water in its mouth
- Ogremnoth's Crown - allows your mouth to open up large enough to eat an entire human.
- Dirty Birdcage - holds spirit of a messenger bird, can send messages to spirits
- Bustard's Wreath - a necklace, creates two duplicates of you when you are stressed
- Blackbird's Hex - boon, allows you to summon a large blackbird to do a complicated task
- Cerberus' Chant - sword, lethality 3, 1/day can attack 3 targets at once
- Hound's Tail - whip, lethality 1, deals no damage but can restrain one creature indefinitely
- Pulverize - hammer, 1/day it can smash through any surface (wall, door, floor)
- Nightmare's Favour - boon, allows you to enter the Dreamwave 1/adventure
- Breath of the Wind God - cloak that allows you to treat air as water 1/day
- Dragon's Blood - highly flammable liquid, spreads quick, burns through steel, 3 uses
- Thrasher's Wing - sword, lethality 5, if it causes a Body death it decapitates the target
- Mantle of the Thunder God - belt, 1/adventure you can cause a minor earthquake with a big stomp
- Brick and Mortar - shotgun, ignore armor, lethality 10
- Fog of Despair - banner, when planted fog surrounds the area, planter of the banner can see
- 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!
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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?
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?
Monday, June 17, 2019
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.
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