What is Heroes & Other Worlds?

Heroes & Other Worlds is a game of adventure inspired by Metagaming's classic Melee/Wizard/TFT system combined with inspiration from the Moldvay edited basic game. The rules are easy to learn and use standard six sided dice. The system is simple, sensible and flexible in the spirit of classic role playing games from the early 80's. Become a Hero, Other Worlds await!

Sunday, March 23, 2014

What's in the bag? A d66 table

Back in January I shared a d66 table for what you might find in the woods.  It's the kind of thing I use when hexcrawling or just as a random table when the party does not head right to a location entrance but instead choose to "look around first."

In that same spirit below is another d66 table for "What's in the bag?"  I am not sure about your games, but I am not shy about having bodies pop up here and there to reinforce the idea of the world being a very dangerous and uncertain place.  Occasionally with the body, a bag with something odd, unusual or creepy in it will be found to push the "oddity" meter another notch up.  Sometimes, just a stray bag left behind in a dungeon, found along a river bank, filched off a cart from a merchant or stolen from a person in town should contain something unexpected.

If you are the kind of Referee who likes to have an arsenal of little interesting oddities to toss at players then this kind of table is great to have on a 3x5 card ready for work.  I like the strange and unusual to pop up and add a little unsettling feeling to the game. Consider it an added mystery for the players, "Well what the hell is it and what can we do with do with this?"

Some folks can go over board with the blood and gore and dark cults of the elder gods blinding horror stuff in an attempt to say "THIS IS HORRIBLE MIND BENDING EVIL!" but player reaction can be less than impressed.

I've never had that kind of stuff "wow" or intrigue a group as much as hitting them with something small, odd, and unsettling like, "You find a bag with a greasy hand shaped object in it. Each finger is a partially burned candle and a pulsing black mass seems to shimmer and writhe in the palm of the hand."  Step back and watch the player sit and debate all the odd stuff it could be and as the Referee hearing the players debate and talk about it, THEY will toss out a better idea of what it could be then I could possibly write!

Anyway, here is the table.  Grab 2d6 and put it to work for you!
d66 10 20 30
1 Candles shaped like fingers 6 colored threads, each is 6 inches long A collection of 100 feathers
2 Used bandages 6 wet pairs of long-johns 24 stones in different colors
3 A Jar of Eyes Carved bone flute Pine tar and 3 brushes
4 Tub of lard and 6 pieces burnt bread 6 metal bars wrapped in purple leaves 6 metal vials and 3 bamboo vials
5 Glasses with 4 color lenses A book with all black pages Floor plan of a tower
6 44 folded cloth napkins Climbing spikes and a hatchet a 1' angry squirrel
d66 40 50 60
1 Small pot of ink and brushes Dehydrated fruit, maybe its fruit A stoneware jug covered in hair
2 Partial eaten foot, humanoid Onyx box with gold sigil Broken pottery and hair
3 3 orange keys on a ring 3 Birds in wood cages Dried fish and rotting cabbage
4 Bottle of Old Ogre whisky Four undead rats on leashes A rattle made of finger bones
5 20' of chain and 2 locks 60' silk rope 2 fry pans, and 6 snakes in a box
6 Idol made of stitched skins Strange tin of tobacco and odd pipe Gem shaped like a clawed hand

...AND if that is not enough in one post, hot on my tip to check out Tad's Ars Phantasia site, I'd like to point you to a site of One Page dungeon wonders at I'll See it When I Believe it! Incredible art & unique one page dungeon adventures!  I supported it on Patreon and I think its well worth the coin! Click on over and see the greatness! If you like what you see and if you have a stray ducat to commit to their project, I think its one very well spent!  Game on!

3 comments:

  1. I like these, they've got real personality. It appears that you and I both have a similar style for designing table entries :). Also, thanks for the link to Michael's page. Looks like he's doing some really neat work with the one page dungeons. I'll be taking notes.

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  2. Thanks Tad! Michal's one pagers are really cool and worth a look! Looking forward to seeing what YOU do next!

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  3. You should have included a shark, or something.

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