Sting's Deadbeat Cousins, or: Divinatory Item Generator

So, the Hobbit is pretty great, right?

Pinterest is the bane of my existence but I did manage to find the original source for this image (by theGorgonist)

Sting: Dagger that Glows when Orcs are near

Item that Action when Category is near

Item d20

1. Dagger
2. Sword 
3. Spear
4. Axe
5. Mace
6. Hammer
7. Halberd
8. Bow
9. Crossbow
10. Rifle
11. Pistol
12. Shield
13. Breastplate
14. Helmet
15. Ring
16. Necklace
17. Gauntlets 
18. Boots 
19. Skull
20. Tome

Action d20

1. Glows
2. Changes Color
3. Emits a Beam of Light
4. Screams
5. Moans Pleasurably
6. Vibrates
7. Freezes
8. Burns
9. Strobes
10. Smells of Farts
11. Smells of Flowers
12. Leaks Blood
13. Recites Scripture
14. Becomes Heavier
15. Levitates
16. Smokes
17. Moistens
18. Plays Music
19. Whispers Psychically
20. Turns Invisible

Category d20

1. Orcs
2. Humans
3. Elves
4. Dwarves
5. Goblins
6. Dumb Undead
7. Intelligent Undead
8. Predatory Animals
9. Herd Animals
10. Birds
11. Books
12. Alcohol
13. Demons
14. Ghosts
15. Royalty
16. Criminals
17. Wealthy People
18. Liars
19. Virgins
20. Sluts (anyone who has had sex recently and enjoyed it, even a little) 

Most of the results for "witch hut" are Minecraft, which, in retrospect, makes sense (by Tiana Maros)

The Shop
The shop is run by an old, old man who has been old for as long as anyone can remember. They call him The Shopkeeper in the Woods. He loves mysteries, especially the mystery of what his magic items do, and he’ll encourage the players to buy the cheapest items. If killed, he Obi-Wans out (with all his items and cash) and returns the next time someone visits the shop, gently admonishing his killers if they return. If they kill him a second time, they will never be able to find the shop again.

At every visit, the shop has 5 items for sale, all rolled randomly. They count as magic for the purposes of hitting ghosts and werewolves or whatever.

1. Two unlabeled items, each a bit cheaper than a silvered sword
2. An item with its action labeled, 2x the price of the unlabeled items
3. An item with its category labeled, 3x the price of the unlabeled items
4. An item with both its action and category labeled, 4x the price of the unlabeled items

Tables for items like these would probably be cool, too (xkcd)

Betty Bacontime has her own version of this table here.
The button was built using Spwack's Automatic List-to-HTML Translator v2.

BE HELLBOY! or: the Sanctioned Cambion--a GLOG Class

So, Dan over at Throne of Salt wrote a Hellboy class for dB/dX games. In the grand tradition of the GLOG, I decided to adapt it (with his permission). The class was already quite close to GLOG format; I just added Fan the Hammer, tightened the wording, and ordered the abilities. Without further ado, here’s the class:

I haven't read any Hellboy yet, but he sure does look cool (image via IGN)

Sanctioned Cambion

For every Sanctioned Cambion template you have, increase your HP by 1.

A: Infernal Heritage, Leadfoot
B: Blessed Lead, The Gitchy Feeling
C: Drawing Out the Devil, Ember Eyes
D: White Sacrament, Fan the Hammer

Starting Equipment: Revolver (d6 exploding on 6, offhand, 6 shots)

Infernal Heritage
Take half damage from mundane fire and embodied demons. You are immune to seduction.

Leadfoot
You’re heavy, as though made of stone. It’s difficult to move you or knock you down. Most humans can’t do it at all, and you roll with advantage against stronger creatures. You sink.

Blessed Lead
Keep up to [templates] bullets primed to deal triple damage to possessive demons (and none to their hosts). It takes a day to prepare one bullet.

The Gitchy Feeling
Sense the presence of demons and spirits within 60’, and (roughly) their numbers and strength.

Draw Out the Devil
Force incorporeal demons to Save or be trapped in an object. If you know the demon’s true name, it has disadvantage on its Save.

Ember Eyes
With a bit of light, you can see 30’ in the dark (no color). Your eyes glow like hot coals.

White Sacrament
With an hour long ritual, you and your allies can enter a pocket of hell and strike at the blackened soul of a manifested demon. For every HP you sacrifice, your allies all get +1 damage on their next successful attack. If you are killed, everyone is trapped in hell.

Fan the Hammer
You can fire your revolver as many times in one attack as it has bullets remaining, but use only the best roll for the actual attack.

Here’s a neat trick: you can set a google doc so that anyone with the link can view it, then get a shortened URL and QR Code attached to that link, then print those things out. An iPhone's camera, Android's Google Lens, and Snapchat can all read QR codes. That lets everyone at the table look at the doc on their phones without printing a bajillion copies or emailing them the link. You can just print the QR and show it to them. This link goes to my google doc for the Sanctioned Cambion, which will update if I make any changes.

https://goo.gl/RYzzS9 

Like I said earlier, this class is mostly not mine, but I do have some commentary on the abilities and changes I made.

Ability Ordering: I spread the three applied exorcisms out over the last three levels and the infernal bits out over all of the levels. That way, the Sanctioned Cambion grows in power both with their hellish abilities and as a demon hunter, which is pretty cool.

Infernal Heritage: Reduced the fire immunity to resistance, because I’m not a fan of total immunity.

Leadfoot: Removed the math from it, because less math is better.

Blessed Lead: This is the same--Dan updated his version to match mine.

The Gitchy Feeling: Added a range specification.

Drawing Out the Devil: I didn’t want to bother with turning tables, and Save scales with power anyway.

Ember Eyes: I worded this one to match my thief ability.

White Sacrament: I don’t like spell activation effects, so I converted it to simple HP-for-damage.

Fan the Hammer: This ability is an original. I tried to word it so that it would make sense in both the GLOG and Moonhop. I considered giving the class an Extra Attack, but I decided that infringed too closely on Fighter Territory. I’m proud of this ability, though--it lets players mess with crit/exploding damage chance, if you use those things, and practically guarantee a hit at the cost of using a lot of ammo.

So, I’ve written 15 other classes, but I posted this most recent addition first because it was easy to write commentary for. I think I want to say more about the other stuff I’ve written, but I also don’t feel like writing it down right now, so they remain unposted. If you do want to see them, you should hang around on the OSR Discord, where I workshop and share my stuff regularly.

Moonhop (an Oddhack)

EDIT:  Moonhop is now for sale on DriveThruRPG for $2.99!

It will remain here on this blog for free as well, so you can download it and see what it's like before  paying.



Here it is! I’ve been workshopping this on the OSR Discord for a while now and I think I’m happy with it. It’s a hack of Into the Odd (paid version, free version), with GLOG-style races, failed careers, and a bunch of player-facing rules, including classless GLOG Magic, a new-ish set of Hexcrawling speed rules, and weird Hireling Squad rules.

Click the image or this link.