Resources

Wildspace Encounters

Yesterday Wizards of the Coast announced that they’re bringing Spelljammer back for 5th edition. I’ve got a lot of nostalgia for Spelljammer and I’ve posted some stuff before. After the announcement I dug out Adventures In Space and Wildspsace and immediately got the urge to write some random encounters for travelling through wildspace.

Adventures In Space says this about encounters:

Given the nature of space movement, an oppossing craft may appear suddenly in the distance, then slow to combat speed almost immediately. Since it is in the nature of the spelljamming helm to stop when it nears the gravity plance of another body, many encounters will occur without the desire of either side.
The opposing ship(s) will appear 11-20 hexes away (1d10 + 10) in a random direction determined by rolling 1d6:

Directly Ahead

Ahead & Right (Starboard)

Behind & Right

Directly Behind

Behind & Left (Port)

Ahead and Left

Heading is usually toward the player’s ship, though the DM can determine this if he desires.

It goes on to say that there is no surprise roll and that there should be several rounds of maneuver before ships come within effective weapon range. We’re directed to use the standard Encounter Reactions roll. (As an aside, I really like the combination of determined encounter direction alongside distance and I think this can be useful in a dungeon, too. I did this in In The Bluelight as the PCs traverse a dungeon made entirely from ice, allowing them to see shapes through the walls and floor, but I think this has applications in a "normal" dungeon as well. But that’s for another time.)

One thing the core Spelljammer book doesn’t give us are tables of random encounters to go with this system. So I’ve written one for you. Not everything here has stats in the AD&D books. You’ll have to do some work if you want to use them but I also expect that most people aren’t playing 2nd edition and so stats for that system would be next to useless for readers anyway.

Some of these encounters are more specific than a random encounter table generally should be but that’s because I wanted to have fun while I wrote it rather than just writing a list of things you might bump into.

3d6	Encounter
3	A beholder the size of an asteroid, concocting plans to devour a moon.
4	A debris cloud, remnants of a battle. The shards of twisted metal crawl with 4d100 clockwork horrors.
5	1d3 Asteroid Spiders
6	Solar flares from the nearest fire body.
7	A colossus, frozen and drifting.
8	A ghost ship, crewed by Ancient Mariners, drifting aimlessly.
9	A pod of 1d6 space whales seeking their ancestral mating ground.
10	Astral pirates sailing under a red flag.
11	A Wasp crewed by 2d6 goblins.
12	An astrologer on a golden barge, attempting to birth a new star in a copper crucible.
13	Shards of a lost moon.
14	A mirror several thousand miles wide and half as tall, drifting between stars.
15	1d4+1 jammer leeches.
16	Abandoned dyson sphere, the external walls daubed with warnings in all known languages.
17	Abandoned Citadel.
18	Ship mimic. (Roll for type on Ship Mimic Typetable)

2d6	Ship mimic type
2	Spelljammer
3	Dwarven Citadel
4	Galleon
5	Nautiloid
6	Wasp
7	Mosquito
8	Flitter
9	Dragonship
10	Neogi Deathspider
11	Gnomish Citadel
12	Man-o-War

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Three hexes - yellow, green, and grey - sit next to a green title that reads "Wordle Hex Maps"

Wordle Hex Map Generation

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Recently @molomoot posted a really cool method of dungeon generation using the daily crosswords they find in the Metro newspaper. I absolutely intend to try this at some point, especially as there’s now a Crossword Dungeon Game Jam running on itch.

I haven’t done a crossword in years, but I have been doing Wordle every day like the rest of the planet. And the combination of the crossword generation, Wordle, and reading The Vast In The Dark got me thinking about other ways to use the things you do every day (crosswords, Wordle, whatever) to generate gameable content.

I realised that the chart of your attempts that Wordle generates every day can easily be transferred into a simple hex map. If you look at The Vast In The Dark’s generation, it only has three kinds of hexes – ruins, pillars, and wastes. And Wordle gives you three different colours.

I don’t want to spoilt today’s Wordle, so I went back through my phone to see if I had screenshots of old games that might prove fruitful. Here’s one I’ve duplicated in Photoshop.

I don’t remember what day this was but the word was “Pleat”. Not a very useful word, but my last guess before I got it right was “Petal”. And that feels like a good theme for a hex crawl.

Let’s scrap the final row with the correct guess. We’ll say that green squares are settlements, yellow squares are fields filled with poppies, and black squares are something threatening. Maybe ruins, a wasteland of some kind, I don’t know. I’m taking a week off so I’m not expending too much energy on this right now.

Here’s a hex map:

I’m not really sure what else I need to say about this at this point.

Use Wordle to build a hex map. Populate it with dungeons you made from crosswords. Play some games and enjoy life. And leave a tip at Ko-Fi if you enjoyed this.

Resolving Everything with Turn Undead

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A small system to resolve tasks using the Turn Undead table from the Holmes Basic Set (1977).

Set Difficulty

When a task must be performed and there is a chance of failure the GM assigns the task a Difficulty from 1 to 8, where 1 is trivially easy and 8 is almost impossibly hard for even the most skilled character.
The GM may instead roll 1d8 to set the Difficulty.
In combat the Difficulty is determined by the enemy’s Hit Dice.

Make An Attempt

If you lack both skill and the proper tools, you fail.
     If you have either skill or the proper tools roll 2d6 and compare the result the table below, cross-referencing your level with the Difficulty. If the roll is equal to or greater than the number given in the table then you have succeeded.
     If the table contains an S, you succeed automatically. You may roll anyway to attempt to score a Critical.
     If the table contains a C, you succeed automatically and gain some additional advantage. There is no need to roll.
     A roll of 12 (6-6 on the dice) is always a Critical. You succeed and gain some additional advantage.
     A roll of 2 (1-1 on the dice) is always a failure, and you suffer some consequence.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
1st	7	9	11
2nd	S	7	9	11
3rd	S	S	7	9	11
4th	C	S	S	7	9	11
5th	C	C	S	S	7	9	11
6th	C	C	C	S	S	7	9	11

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Unlooted: Gifts From A Ghost

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I write random tables as a warm-up every day. You can suggest a prompt here.

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Things A Ghost Leaves By Your Bedside While You’re Sleeping

An antique straight razor with a bone handle, carved with a name you don’t recognise.
A small photo album containing the chronicle of a life, from birth to death. Once the owner is old enough to hold a camera, they never appear in any of the photos themselves.
Twigs of birch and stalks of yarrow, bound together with a worn strip of leather. At the centre of the bundle is a tarnished copper coin with a hole drilled through the middle that the leather passes through several times.
Tickets for a train that crashed a century ago, unused.
Lightbulbs, taken from around your house and crushed into pieces.
Seven grey pebbles streaked with yellow and purple. They have been worn smooth by water and time and are arranged in ascending order of size.
The heart of a doe, wrapped in barbed wire and thorns. It is still warm.
A hand mirror, the frame and handle made from deep mahogany. The glass is misted over and won’t come clean.
A knitted pair of gloves. The little finger has been cut off both hands and the hole sewn shut.
An old farmer’s almanac with long-range weather forecasts, full moon dates and times, and notes about significant astronomical events. The page that shares today’s date has been marked and annotated, and the weather forecast matches what you see despite being from 50 years ago.
A letter to an estranged lover, stamped but never posted.
A cassette tape in a clear plastic box with no insert. It has been wound back to the beginning but the writing on the label has been scribbled out.

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Street Name Generator

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Some Monsters for Troika

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Down In Yongardy is currently funding on Kickstarter.

These monsters were created by rolling random results on my random monster generator.

The monster approaches, skittering like an insect, with the strong smell of rotting wood. It is slowly sinking into the earth. It is a…

Thorgnat

Skill 7

Stamina 9

Initiative 2

Armour 0

Damage as Small Beast

The more the city of Troika spreads the more the wilds outside it resent the encroaching concrete steel and glass. The Thorgnats are a living manifestation of nature’s irritation with the constant expansion of the "civilised" city. A pest best driven from the city or left to the owls, a Thorgnat infestation in your garden means other, bigger pests from the wilds can’t be far behind.

Mien

Brittle
Cautious
Flitting
Testing
Splintering
Violent

The monster approaches, whispering your name, with a cracked porcelain mask over its face. It is arguing with itself. It is a…

Semascere

Skill 10

Stamina 19

Initiative 3

Armour 2

Damage as Modest Beast

Beneath the mask is a writhing, pitiful pile of secrets and lies. The Semascere knows your deepest, darkest machinations and wants to make sure you know it knows. They’re often employed by rulers to keep those around them in check. They’re often killed by rulers for failing to keep their mouths shut.

Special

The Semascere has access to Languages and Natter.

Mien

Inquisitive
Colluding
Salacious
Revelatory
Insidious
Gleeful

The monster approaches with the sound of glass breaking, endlessly. Its skin is translucent. It is lost and hungry. It is a…

Glass Eater

Skill 8

Stamina 12

Initiative 1

Armour 3

Damage as Fusil or Modest Beast.

Scourge of churches and tall, shiny buildings everywhere, the Glass Eaters roam Troika in search of their next meal. Some say they are the result of strange experiments gone awry (but that’s what some say about most things they don’t understand). Others are convinced that the Eaters are what happen when Tower Wizards don’t properly dispose of their glassware. Whatever they are, they’re ugly as hell and they’ll eat the windows right out of your house.

Mien

Resting
Sad
Hungry
Hungry
Chewing
Searching

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Swirling concentric circles contain three almost identical faces rendered in red and blue. Text to the right of the image reads "People Of The Law".

Troika Background: Professional Juror

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I’ve just released a set of 6 Troika backgrounds called People Of The Law as a companion piece to Down In Yongardy, which is on Kickstarter for another 20 days. This is one of the backgrounds from People Of The Law.

In a land where people go to court to watch lawyers skewer each other to death, rooting for their favourites and presumably igniting fierce rivalries, it seemed logical that there would be something approaching football hooligans there. Hence the Professional Juror.

Concentric circles in yellow, red, and blue form the background for a set of three almost-identical faces. Two are red and the one in the middle is blue. They are all in portrait, staring off to the right of the frame. They all wear large pointed hats. The blue face has a single tear falling into their eye. The red faces have swirling circles on their next, almost resembling tattoos. — Professional Juror

15 Professional Juror

You’re not like the casuals who show up to a trial as a fun afternoon out. You can talk at length about even the most obscure historical trial, and you’ll fight anybody who supports a barrister facing off against your favourites. You take the Law seriously.

Possessions

Fixtures List showing upcoming trials.
Red Scarf or Blue Scarf. Whichever you choose grants +2 Fighting against wearers of the opposite colour.
Autograph Book filled with hastily-scrawled names of your favourite barristers, or A Collection of Stickers illustrated with different famous lawyers.
A Team Song, half remembered.

Advanced Skills

3 Fist Fighting

2 Strength

2 Gambling

1 Run

1 Wrestling

1 Obscure Fact Recollection

Down In Yongardy is on Kickstarter right now.

People Of The Law is available on itch, or for free to Kickstarter backers.

What’s Beneath The Church?

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I write random tables as a warm-up every day. You can suggest a prompt here.

Deep beneath the vaults you find… (1d11)

Footprints that run circles in the dust. They shift and change, evidence that someone – many someones – move around down here regularly, but nobody ever sees or hears them.
A long row of dead priests, sealed into the walls behind ancient brick. The state of the mortar tells you they weren’t all dead were they were buried in the masonry of the church.
A slithering, slobbering mound of bones and flesh that oozes and creeps. The priest has been making sacrifices to placate it for years – goats, dogs, crows, even the occasional penitent worshipper who trusted the man with their sins.
A ritual chamber, bare stone and blood-soaked earth, candles and runes and broken sticks of chalk. The stone of the foundations is soot-black and baked from heat.
A broken church bell wrapped tight in chains and strips of thick leather. The air around it sings softly to itself, resonating in harmony with a dampened frequency you’re not sure if you hear or imagine.
Tunnels, endless tunnels, claustrophobic walls of crushing rock and trickling dirt. They run for miles beneath the local village, a labyrinth of unclear purpose.
The shed skins of the local priest, a man who has served his flock far longer than is natural.
A body made of parchment and sealing wax. Fragile breaths rattle in its chest and it flinches and squeals away from naked flames.
An inversion of the church above, a vertiginous pit whose stained glass windows stare onto bare rock. All the idols and images are twisted reflections of their counterparts above-ground, and the cackling priest would rather draw your blood than feed you the blood of the lamb.
A deep excavation sealed under thick glass. What little light there is shows the ruins of an even older church that once stood on this site. Huge clay pots line one wall, each sealed with a disc of wax a foot thick.
A low wooden door, far thicker than normal and reinforced with sturdy strips of iron. Beyond it is a small chamber carved into the rock. The walls are covered with words painted in dried blood and etched into the earth, a manic Revelation that foretells endless misery.

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I write random tables as a warm-up every day. You can suggest a prompt here.

Astronomical Events & Portents

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I have a Troika! solo adventure on Kickstarter right now and I’d love it if you supported it!

I write random tables as a warm-up every day. You can suggest a prompt here.

What do you see?

A new constellation appears.
A comet, bright blue, the biggest star in the sky. It takes a week to pass overhead and is visible even during daylight.
A week of solar eclipses, lasting for an hour at the same time every day. The moon is in the wrong part of the sky to be responsible.
Patches of the night sky, normally a tapestry of stars and galaxies, slowly turn black as though they were filled with candles that are being snuffed out one by one.
The sun begins to change colour, shifting from blazing yellow to cold blue over a month or more.
A week-long meteor shower, contained to one small area. Buildings are destroyed by meteorites the size of cows, and where they pummel the ground a serious of undiscovered caves and tunnels is revealed.
Instruments detect a new sound from deep space – a constant wailing, like some kind of extraterrestrial banshee.
A new moon appears in the sky suddenly, destroying the regular tides and sending animals into a frenzy.

What does it mean?

Roll 3d7 and read the tables in order to create a portent.

d7	Who?	What?	Where?
1	A new monarch	will be born	in the frozen north.
2	A sleeping god	will awaken	beneath the sands.
3	An orphan child	will begin a reign of terror	in the capital city.
4	A dead prophet	will begin to speak prophecy	in the ruins of the old empire.
5	The leper queen	will lead an army	across the waves.
6	A thousand forgotten daughters	will have their revenge	on the fields of blood.
7	The serpent gods	will begin a feast	in the heart of the empire.

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I write random tables as a warm-up every day. You can suggest a prompt here.

A Skeleton Holding A…

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I write random tables as a warmup every day. You can suggest a prompt here.

A Skeleton Holding…

A wooden carving of an orange, with one strip of the skin peeled back. The inside sparkles like a geode. It’s probably valuable, but the wooden skin is tough and the fruit inside is incredibly delicate.
Another skeleton. The two are wrapped in a close embrace near the bones of an ancient fire.
A wooden sign that reads "Do Not Remove This Notice".
Their own finger bone, sharpened to a point and stained with old ink. The journal they were writing in has succumbed to age and rot. Only the binding remains, and even that is riddled with mould.
A deck of cards for divination, still in perfect condition. The skeleton is cross-legged on the ground as though about to perform a reading.
A tarnished copper flute, green and corroded. The skeleton’s bones have been chewed on and the ground is covered in rat droppings.
An ivory carving of a small bear wrapped in faux fur.
A set of seven hand bells of different sizes. Their tolling makes you feel sleepy and cold.

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