random ideas

Random Things: Street Vendors

cart-1200940_960_720Street Vendors

These random things articles are designed as quick idea generators for time-pressed GMs who want to inject some additional details into their game. Street vendors are often seen in smaller settlements in fantasy RPGs where there are no established markets, selling their wares from wooden carts or in simple crates at the side of the dirt paths that serve as the main throughfares, however they can also be found in larger settlements, either trying to dodge taxes or perhaps they simply can’t afford a pitch on a more prestigious market.

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Random things you might see in a strange port

Our random things articles are designed to give quick hits of inspiration for time-pressed GMs who want to inject some additional details into their game, when you’re stuck for a detail roll 1D20 on the table below for an idea. Although these articles are mostly fantasy-based in nature we’ve strived to keep them generic enough that they can be used with most games.

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Frost-covered Trinkets for D&D 5E

These random things articles are designed as quick idea generators for time-pressed GMs who want to inject some additional details into their game, in this article we’re looking at trinkets again. Trinkets were one of my favourite things about character generation in D&D 5th Edition; essentially each character starts with at least one, a small item or curiosity that has some odd property or something strange about it, it’s not a powerful magic item, just something interesting that could spur conversation and plot. Although this article was inspired by D&D 5E the same mechanic can be used in pretty much any game including OSR titles.

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Random Things you might find in the Lost World

Our random things articles are designed to give quick hits of inspiration for time-pressed GMs who want to inject some additional details into their game, when you’re stuck for a detail roll 1D20 on the table below for an idea. Although these articles are mostly fantasy-based in nature we’ve strived to keep them generic enough that they can be used with most games.

Lost worlds and valleys are a staple of many pulp and fantasy genres, whether it be a lost plateau in the mountains where dinosaurs still roam or a mist shrouded valley filled with giant mushrooms and prehistoric plants, you should find something useful in this article.

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Random Things you might encounter in the Underdark

Mushroom_(PSF)These random things articles are designed as quick idea generators for time-pressed GMs who want to inject some additional details into their game,in this article we are taking a look at that most infamous of realms the Underdark, a realm of sunless seas and lightless caverns deep below the known world. The Underdark is home of the evil Drow, the Kuo-Toa and other abominations that dwell in the deep far from the light of the surface world.

When you need some inspiration just roll a D20 and consult the table. Continue reading →

Random Things: D&D 5E trinkets for a savage world

desert nightThese random things articles are designed as quick idea generators for time-pressed GMs who want to inject some additional details into their game, in this article we look at trinkets. Trinkets were one of my favourite things about character generation in D&D 5th Edition, each character starts with at least one, a small item or curiosity that has some odd property or something strange about it, it’s not a powerful magic item, just something interesting that could spur conversation and plot.

These items can of course be used in other RPGs.

The list of trinkets in the D&D 5E PHB is great, but it had to be for the standard style of fantasy world that a large number of D&D campaign games take place in, this is great and makes sense from a marketing stand-point, but over the years there have been some really compelling primitive worlds (Dark Sun, for example). Whilst it’s possible to adapt some standard trinkets, I wanted to offer a table themed more towards these savage worlds: Continue reading →

Random Things that you might hear about a Haunted House

These random things articles are designed as quick idea generators for time-pressed GMs who want to inject some additional details into their game, in this article we look at random rumours that you might hear about a haunted house.

When you need some inspiration just roll a D20 and consult the table:

No.Description
1A number of previous residents have killed themselves after complaining that they were being haunted by something unseen following them on the stairs.
2The previous owner is believed to have murdered a number of people when he ran the building as a guest house, their angry spirits now prowl the hallways seeking vengeance.
3Rumour has it that a hidden gateway to hell lies somewhere within the grounds of the building.
4Local children dare each other to spend a night alone in the house, normally nothing happens but occasionally one of them goes missing and is never found.
5The owner has reported seeing wet footprints appear and then disappear in the hallway.
6There is a bloodstain on the lounge carpet that is believed to have belonging to a young man who was stabbed in the building, it has been cleaned numerous times but always re-appears.
7Set in the wall over the the fireplace is a human skull, it is believed to have belonged to one of the previous owners and was cemented into the wall as per instructions in their will, legend has it that when someone is going to die in the house, the skull screams.
8A phantasmal black hound haunts the bounds of the property, the locals say that anyone who sees it dies shortly afterwards.
9Villagers at the local tavern make religious gestures and grow silent when the house is mentioned, saying that the place and the family that once owned it had an evil reputation.
10Rumour has it that star-crossed lovers died in the house, according to local legend their souls wander the property trying to find each other.
11One certain occasions a spectral figure of a woman, hair and clothes moving as though she were underwater manifests in the drawing room, this apparition has been witnessed by numerous people.
12Odd knocking sounds are often heard from the walls, sometimes whispered voices can be heard as well.
13There is a door that must once have belonged to a chapel within the ground, although the rest of the building has long since crumbled to nothing. Oddly the free-standing door is always kept locked with a fresh chain and padlock, a crude sign in-front of it warning trespassers to stay away.
14During the last bad winter it's said that a vagrant froze to death outside of the building, since then the temperature inside the house has be noticably colder than outside.
15Furniture often re-arranges itself inside the house, although never when anyone is looking.
16Sometimes at night, a light is seen bobbing along in the distance, it disappears if anyone gets close.
17The old rocking chair on the porch sometimes moves on it's own.
18The original building on this site burnt down many years ago, sometimes the smell of charred wood and another sickly, sweet odour can be smelt throughout the house.
19It's said that evil cultists once performed blashpemous ceremonies within the grounds and that the spirits of their victims (or perhaps the things they summoned) linger here.
20The spectre of a man wrongly executed for a crime is said to wander the halls carrying his severed head under his arm.

Random Things: Gothic horror trinkets for D&D 5E

These random things articles are designed as quick idea generators for time-pressed GMs who want to inject some additional details into their game, in this article we look at trinkets. Trinkets were one of my favourite things about character generation in D&D 5th Edition, each character starts with at least one, a small item or curiosity that has some odd property or something strange about it, it’s not a powerful magic item, just something interesting that could spur conversation and plot.

These items can of course be used in other RPGs.

To honour the recent of the Curse of Strahd by Wizards of the Coast this article provides 100 gothic/horror themed trinkets that can be substituted for those in the 5E PHB. Continue reading →

Random Things you might encounter in a swamp

These random things articles are designed as quick idea generators for time-pressed GMs who want to inject some additional details into their game, in this article we look at random things that you might encounter in a swamp.

When you need some inspiration just roll a D20 and consult the table:

No.Description
1You come across a knot of trees twisted together and jutting out of the water, from a certain angle the outline of the trees resembles a hunched figure.
2There is a crashing sound from nearby, followed by a large splash, perhaps it was just a branch falling from the trees, or maybe it was something else.
3A brightly coloured frog sitting on a nearby banyan stump croaks loudly, it's throat distending as it does so.
4The ground drops away sharply below you as you enter a deeper part of the swamp and struggle to keep your feet in the sucking mud.
5From far up in the trees the loud call of a primate echoes through the air, disturbing the silence of the swampland.
6Carved into the trunk of the tree up ahead is a strangle circular symbol, moss coats most of the entire tree but the symbol is mysteriously free of it.
7Half submerged in the waist deep water, a suit of armour can be seen, it is covered in moss and vines, through them you can just about make out the white of bone.
8What you think is a log floats past a few metres away, then it blinks at you with the hungry eyes of an alligator.
9From some distance off you hear the sound of beating drums, growing closer.
10Thick vines criss-cross the swamp in this area making travel extremely slow unless you cut through them, making a great deal of noise in the process.
11A thick, clump of brightly coloured mushrooms grow from the damp remains of a collapsed, rotten log, they look tasty but could be poisonous.
12With loud cries, a group of wading birds, disturbed by your presence takes flight amidst the fluttering of many feathered wings.
13A misty cloud of insects hang in the air above the water, stinging and biting all who are forced to wade through the area.
14The trees in this area of strung with webs, moisture glistening on their strands, a number of smaller spiders scitter through the webs, but they couldn't have made all of this.
15A single canoe floats lazily past you, of the pilot there is no sign.
16Blocks of stone sunk into the soft mud serve as a stable pathway in this area, perhaps it was built deliberately but the stone is so weathered it is impossible to tell.
17The surface of the water here is criss-crossed by gigantic lily pads, they almost look big enough for a person to step on.
18A single black rooster scratches it's path through the mud, it eyes you warily, bobbing it's head backwards and forwards.
19In the centre of the swamp a lonely, decript old hut on stilts emergences from the muck, you can just make out a flickering candle flame in the window.
20As you walk a thick mist settles over the water making the air even more humid and making it difficult to see.