Here Be Dragons!

 Dragons!

Erol Otus, 1981 - one of two images I always think of when dragons are mentioned.

A question in a FB group Dungeon Master Resources set me posting several links to OSR blogs, posts addressing dragons.  This was because the request boiled down to making dragons 'more interesting' for 5e.  Nothing is more interesting to me than what the OSR creates.  If along the way more 5e players and DMs start leaning towards OSR play, all the better.

I ended up with such a fine collection of such things that I thought I would collect them here.

First up are a d6 Dragon Generator and the Unexpurgated Dragon Generator from Old Guard Gaming.  

Second is Goblin Punch, and its amazing adventure the Dragon Hole (and its follow-up post on better filling it).

Third is d4 Caltrops.  Currently only Black and Blue dragons are addressed, but its a start.  As an aside, the OSE Encounter Activity Tables for various critters is wonderful for those folks that lean towards random rolls and emergent story.  Eventually, the other color dragons will end up on the master list.

Fourth are a new take on Chromatic dragons from Coins and Scrolls.  I particularly like how the format of how each is described.

Fifth is the series of d100 dragon-related posts at Elfmaids & Octopi.  

Smaug, by Angus McBride - a fine artist, often seen in Osprey Military books of my youth, as well as ICE's MERP books.  So much awesome in his art.

In writing this post on a computer, versus Facebooking on my phone, I have better search tools (and can actually type well and see the screen).  As such, here are a few more not mentioned on the FB post.

Archons March On has a Dragon Generator, and lots of other awesome tables, besides.

Blood of Prokopius has a small bit about the dragons of Holmes and Cook rules.  

Throne of Salt has dragons-as-godlings, or at least that is how they come across.

Papers and Pencils has a two-part post about how he creates dragons.  One and Two.

Permanent Cranial Damage addresses how gold transforms mortals into dragons.

Dungeon of Signs has a new breed of dragon.

I'll close with a handful of d12 tables from Dungeon Dozen.

Another Smaug, this by the Hildebrandt Brothers, and from the Tolkien Calendar.  My brother had it and I spent many hours just looking at the pictures.  I wonder if he still does...  it seems there were several calendars ranging from 1969 thru 1977.  Not all were Hildebrandt, however. 

In addition to what I shared, other respondents provided some solid links, with The Monsters Know What They're Doing being a personal favorite.  This Reddit thread is all about dragons.  Plus, lots of comments about making all dragons spellcasters, something I agree with.

Hopefully, there is something here that you can use at your table, or at least inspires your own flavor of dragon.

For what it's worth, I've written about dragons before.

Trap Collection

If I am honest with myself, I must admit that I restarted this blog partially to have set responses to common FB DnD group questions.  This particular post deals with traps.  It is tempting to use this post to catalog puzzle and riddle resources, but for now, it is just traps.  Rules for these traps span rule sets and systems, but a decent DM (or GM, if you prefer) can convert most traps quite easily.

Granted, I've addressed traps before in my unfinished Megadungeon project, which I have not given up on, merely set aside, but here I hope to capture all the resources I can.  There are many.

Jim Holloway - one of my favorite DnD artists

First off are the hardcopy books out there, (and pdf form, as well):

Grimtooth's Traps (Traps, Too, Tree, Fore, Ate, Traps Bazaar, and Dungeon of Doom) - Flying Buffalo's classic trap books of yesteryear.  Fun to read, but I don't know how much fun they actually are to use in play.  Still, worth checking out, if only to get the references to Grimtooth.  The link runs to a collection of them all. Note that Goodman Games has collected them and polished them up for a rerelease. 

Traps and Treachery I and II - while the books from Fantasy Flight Games Legends & Lairs line are out of print, the links run to pdfs on Drivethrurpg.  I own both the hardbacks, and they are best described as monster manuals, but with traps.  

Treacherous Traps - from Nord Games.  Title link runs to pdf, THIS leads to the Nord Games shop where hardbacks (and many other cool things) are available.

Dungeon Magazine - Tallow's Deep (#18) and The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb (#37) are both devious examples of a trap dungeon that isn't automatic death.  There is a conversion to 5e of the latter floating about the net.  I'll leave it to my discerning readers to find pdfs of those two issues of Dungeon.

Pure pdfs (at least to my knowledge):

All Hazards Great and Small - this title is for 3.x and is really a compilation of various monsters-as-traps, the slimes, bugs, and such of a dungeon.  So, naturally occurring traps.

Castle Oldskull's Book of Dungeon Traps - intended for OSRish rulesets, the information on triggers, locations, types of traps, and the like is still worthwhile.  Art is of the freely available type, but fitting.

Lethal Legacies: Traps of the World Before - a d20 ruleset monster manual of traps, to include how they trigger and how to disarm them.  Decent illustrations.

EDIT 3: Courtney Campbell of Hack & Slash has Trick, Empty Rooms, and Basic Trap Design, which is a limited part of his Artifices, Deceptions, and Dilemmas book. EDIT 4: I now own AD&D in hardback - a sweet POD (along with his other two titles - ODD and BECMI).

The cover alone is worth the purchase price.

A new title (part of a highly recommended series) is The Gamemaster's Book of Traps, Puzzles, and Dungeons. I have seen it and its companion pieces on Amazon, but have yet to buy them.

Lastly, some short tables to enhance your trapsmithing ways: d4 Caltrops' A Hundred Clues and Tales for the Tersely Detailed Trap and Dungeon Colour's Traps and Tricks.

Links to blogs and other places focused on traps and trap detection:

Mentats of Gaming Present: Trap-a-Day! - just traps, organized by ruleset and CR.  A fun site worth exploring.

Hack & Slash - this is a lovely blog, being the home of the Quantum Ogre.  The link runs to the part dealing with traps. That said, the author's work is worth picking up in pdf form.

The Alexandrian - These posts are always worth reading, particularly the Gamemastery 101 stuff.  The link runs to an excellent discussion on traps in play.

Goblin Punch - I cannot not mention Goblin Punch.  The link runs to a discussion of how to make traps work well.  Here and here are examples of Goblin traps.  Shitty Goblin traps.  Also from Goblin Punch is this Comprehensive Guide to Secret Doors.  Yes, its technically about doors, but much of the same logic applies to traps.

Psionic Blast from the Past - a fine discussion on how to communicate traps without telling players "It's a trap!" or having them roll passive perception and letting the PC notice it. 

EDIT: Kassoon's random trap generator is kinda neat.

EDIT 2: I found this site recently, and this portion covers Traps and Puzzles, but this is the tip of the iceberg.  

EDIT 3: some links.  First is to the CLICK! house rule regarding traps.  I've not yet used it in play, but it looks like lots of fun.  The second is to a video discussing 5e's darkvision and its impact on traps, passive perception, and gameplay.

EDIT 4: Wally DM has several informative videos, with this one on traps being pertinent to this post.  Give it a watch.  For ease of watching, here are links to titles he addresses: Trap Compendium, Traps, Trammels, and Triggers, Book of Challenges, and Wally DM's own Puzzle Encounters - not exactly traps, but can certainly turn into them.  Some titles he discusses are linked further up post.

EDIT 5: a pair of posts from Ars Ludi about the Bad Trap Syndrome and its cure.

EDIT 6: Archons March On has a d100 list of tricky traps.

EDIT 7: Questing Beast has a solid video, as does Bandit's Keep.  Then there is this collection all about traps.

EDIT 8: Goodman Games is rereleasing Grimtooth's Traps - link up above under Grimtooth. I found several older blog posts addressing traps: Monster Manual Sewn from Pants and False Machine, at least.

This list is far from all-inclusive.  If you need ideas on how to make traps entertaining, watch the first twenty-thirty minutes of Raiders of the Lost Ark (actually, watch the whole movie).  If you want a wider variety of traps, watch all of these Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated cartoons (it'll inspire other things, as well, particularly planar gates near the end). 

Edits made 10/31/21 - Happy Halloween!, 7/7/22, 8/5/22, 10/2/22, 12/31/22, 12/16/23

Bottled Memories

I swear I have read about these on another blog or forum post, but cannot for the life of me determine which one.  Maybe I bottled that memory.

 Jeff Haynie

(I found the image HERE at Goblin Punch).

Bottled Memories are just one more odd item that can be found, either in abandoned wizard towers or a fey market.  Sometimes they are traded elsewhere for varying prices, depending on which memory is said to be within.

The bottles themselves are reminiscent of potion bottles, crystal or ceramic vials that pulse a bit with power, and depending on the memory within in, might be warm or cold to the touch.  Memories trapped in bottles utterly leave the mind of those the memories come from, and the process of bottling memories is lost to modern societies, although certain ancient texts, fey, dragons, extraplanar creatures, and liches may still know how to go about it.

This means that most bottled memories are old.  Terribly old, and perhaps not even from remotely human minds.  This also means that the memories within may be groundshaking revelations.

To use the bottled memory, one merely opens it and inhales the scintillating fumes that waft out of it.  Then the memory is in their mind, to do with as they please.  Sometimes, the memory is such that the new owner of it rightfully fears knowing the information.

Known memories that have been bottled include (according to opened memories and labels on unopened bottles):

Lost spells.

Maps to now-sunken cities, lost temples, hidden troves.

Answers to puzzles or riddles.

How to bypass and navigate trap-filled labyrinths.

Where certain beings are buried, dead or otherwise.

True names of extraplanar beings.

Secret formulae and processes.

National secrets.

Truth behind legends.

Now-dead languages.

Forgotten faiths.

The ability to manipulate magic.

Entire skillsets (a gnome became a master shipwright overnight after one particular bottled memory).

Living spells.

Personalities that dominate and replace the new possessor (the lich Joseph Curwen returned this way).

Recipes.

Personally traumatic events.

Personally satisfying events.

Family faces and names.

Seasons in the sun.

Country roads.

As can be seen, a bottled memory ranges from a precise single memory to a complex connected series of memories.  Yet there is no way to know what it actually is until the bottle or flask is uncorked and the memory inhaled.

For what it is worth, the process of bottling a memory involves a specially-prepared bottle or flask and an (un)willing memory donor.  Research suggests the spells Feeblemind, Modify Memory, Detect Thoughts, and Legend Lore are involved, and from ancient descriptions, the donor tends to end up suffering the effects of Feeblemind for some time after the memory is bottled.  Once bottled, the memory no longer can be recalled, nor can anything short of a Wish determine what it might have been.  Other requirements, such as how to prepare the bottle or flask, are unknown.

PC Backgrounds and the Frankengame

I am sorely tempted to implement this in my Frankengame ruleset, but it implies a system that doesn't provide regular feats and stat boosts with leveling, ala' 3.x and 5e.  I'm good with that, but it pushes my Frankengame closer to B/X than before.  

Something I am also good with.  

From Moldvay Basic, 1981, artist uncertain.

PC background – Roll on the Failed Careers table (from Ten Foot Polemic: 200 Failed Medieval Careers).   Each time you level, roll on the Retroactive Background Table (from Ten Foot Polemic: 1d100 Retroactive Backstory). As the game progresses, use of the I Know a Guy rule can expand character background, perhaps tied into the Retroactive Backstory. 

Tied to backgrounds is the PC's astrological sign, from New Big Dragon Games.  The linked post references a d12 with Zodiac signs on it, but a normal d12 would suffice.  As an aside, New Big Dragon Games has lots of great BX supplemental rules.

Then there is the matter of Faith.  For Clerics (and Paladins, if I include them), it is of utmost importance, but for other classes, not so much.  

I haven't decided upon a pantheon yet, and would be happy letting players choose/design their own deities on the fly.  

So I guess that is for another post.

DCC and the Frankengame

Compiling various houserules to run the game I want to run has led me to DCC, and it has lots to borrow: the mighty deeds, the entire magic system, the lovely random tables, and the flavor.  

Honestly, about the only thing I might dislike about DCC is the additional funny dice and that is because I feel I own enough dice - heresy, I know!

The cover of the comprehensive rules tome; the hardback holds a (large) place of pride on my bookshelf.

So the question I am asking myself, is why not run a full blown DCC game and be done with it?  I have the rules in pdf, so providing players with copies is trivial.  I have reams of adventures for DCC, initially for idea-mining, but I can run them as-is, as well.

Finding the players prove the issue.   Where I live are lots of gamers, but from what I can tell, most are 5e, which is the system they have grown used to.  Nothing wrong with that - my Frankengame certainly uses advantage/disadvantage from it, and the Ghosts of Saltmarsh book is a lovely addition to my shelf (but I am a Saltmarsh fanboy, so that may bias me).  I've run and played 5e, and it works, despite being too super-heroic for my tastes.

I can do a rough survey and find out.  

Then its a question of time.

Edit:  HERE is a fairly thorough review of DCC.

 

Mixed Feelings

A variety of things to write about, mostly focused on why I haven't posted much lately.  Regular readers may not care, but I do, so free therapy.

MekHQ and MegaMek have been eating lots of time.  I am running a full combined arms regiment at this point, so lots of minutiae and micromanaging in the name of entertainment.  It is still fun, but I keep increasing the optional rules, to self-moderate and make it more challenging.  In the name of 80% salvage, I fight through and crush all, not even bothered by potential salvage exploding from ammo and fuel tanks.

All the fights take time.  Thankfully, the latest release lets me shut off chase missions, which are ridiculous time sinks.  Even without chases, the battles take time.  

No guts, no galaxy and all that.

I got to play DnD this past week.  A buddy is running the Candlekeep Mysteries adventures, on a first-come, first-serve basis.  I was able to join for the second session.  From the way it played out, I suspect the intent was not needing to kill anything, but the random PC I chose (my buddy provided a handful for late/lazy players) was the Evil Bugbear Rogue, so death was a member of the party.  Murdering critters in their sleep made me feel a touch bad, but as a bugbear, that is kinda what they do.  

Anyhow, we had fun and solved the mystery (I think).  If I can join next session (schedules dictate yes or no), I will continue playing as Tumble the Bugbear Rogue.  Despite his murderous tendencies (he also likes to eat, or at least taste, everything he kills), I am enjoying the murderous bastard.

Other than that, I am solidifying my comprehensive house rules, reading, mapping, watching movies, and drinking too much.  The urge to write more is there, but peters out once I'm in front of a computer.  If it is laziness or apathy or true writer's block, I have no clue.

Watery Magic Items

These are inspired by a Facebook post I responded to.  The poster asked for aquatic magic items, and these were some of my suggestions.

Shark-Tooth Necklace

This large black shark's tooth hangs from a stout silver cord, with several beads and smaller teeth to either side.  In addition to providing the wearer with a +1 bonus towards Charisma-based checks with sea folk and sailors and such, it also curses the wearer with becoming a wereshark.  Before the first change, the wearer develops a massive appetite, preferably for raw flesh.

While transformed, the wereshark becomes a temporary NPC and performs one of these actions (or something similar, but aquatic).  

Remove Curse at DC 12 allows the wearer to remove the necklace, but the DC increases by 1 for each sentient being slain.  Upon killing a full score of beings, the curse cannot be removed except by slaying the wereshark, whereupon slayers tend to claim the necklace as loot and the cycle begins anew.

Figuring of Wondrous Power: Driftwood Dolphin

When activated (it must be submerged in salt water and the command word Flipper is uttered), a full size playful and intelligent dolphin grows and splashes in the water, awaiting its command.   This dolphin will carry you to shore, scout out a location, fetch something underwater (or carry something under), and attack on your behalf.  

Should the dolphin die, it remembers you when it returns and is not amused.   Dead or dismissed, the dolphin shrinks back into the driftwood carving and may be carried away by the waves if the controller is not quick. 

In fact, this is how the statue changes hands - it is often found washed up on a beach.

Coral Helm

Amy Weber, Coral Helm, 1994

This pink coral helm was obviously grown, but its odd symmetry suggests guidance in its growth, perhaps from sea elves, perhaps from tritons, perhaps from a bored sea god.  Regardless of how it was formed, the Coral Helm is a wondrously useful tool for land dwellers.  Most importantly, it allows whomever dons it to breathe saltwater as if it were oxygen, and to see through the dim ocean waters as if it were normal lighting.  In addition, it allows the wearer to swim as if a sea elf and the ability to speak and summon sea life (although not control it, but the wearer doesn't know that).

The longer one wears the Coral Helm (either cumulatively or straight in a row), the more at home they become in the ocean, and the more they prefer to remain.  Webbing grows between the fingers and toes, gills open on the neck, and the wearer becomes incapable of breathing air.  After three months of use, the wearer feels an unavoidable urge to dive down to the ocean floor, where she curls up and becomes the seed of a new coral reef.  Regardless of how long submerged, the Coral Helm always remains at the top of the reef, easily harvested by those curious.  Digging into the roots of reef, directly below the Coral Helm may reveal the remains (or at least some of the magical and metal bits) of its last wearer. 

What effects potions carried have on the growth of the reef are uncertain, but makes for fascinating debates among half-drunk water wizards.

Conch of the Tritons

There are several versions of this Conch Horn.  

1. Basically a Horn of Valhalla (DMG p175), but only works underwater, and the warriors summoned are tritons, sea elves, or sahaugin, depending on the Conch's alignment.  

2. Formerly belonged to a Triton Princeling, and like all such horns, has a unique sound tied directly to that Princeling.  Tritons that respond will not be amused to find a non-Triton sounding the horn, but will not immediately attack.  They will demand to know how the PCs gained the Conch Horn and what became of the Princeling. 

3. Stormcalling.  When blown, a storm begins brewing around the caster (see the spell Control Weather), quickly spinning up into a hurricane.  Once sounded, the storm begins to brew, until the equivalent of a Cat 5 Hurricane strikes the land, centered upon wherever the horn was blown.  While the storm takes a day or two to hit full destructive potential, it blows itself out by the end of day three.  Note that the supernatural nature of the storms summoned make them excellent breeding grounds for lightning elementals.

4. Summoning.  Sounding this horn is dangerous, as one of the following hears, responds, and wants a damn good reason for why it was summoned.  If it doesn't like the reason, it attacks.  1: Kraken  2: Dragon Turtle  3: Leviathan  4: Sea Giant  5: Elemental Water Dragon   6:  Charybdis   Note that this Conch Horn is the real reason behind several coastal legends of apocalyptic city-sinkings and terrible storms.  Edit: Then again, the Conch Horn of Summoning might call up a whale, instead.

Lanyard of Flotation

Anything this lanyard is properly attached to floats, incapable of sinking entirely.  Heavier objects float along just under the surface, the ball of the lanyard remaining visible (and strangely dry) above the water.  As might be imagined, these Lanyards are actively sought and well-protected by pirates, marines, and others who spend too much time on the water.

Attaching a Lanyard of Flotation to a body does not prevent drowning nor even the body being eaten.  It merely keeps it afloat.  Rumor has it that bodies kept afloat too long become a terrible form of undead.

Edit: Wow! I stumbled across this d100 list at Elfmaids & Octopi, and it puts my work to shame.