Sunday, November 10, 2019

One liners

Today I thought I could squeeze a blog post out of a bunch of undeveloped ideas that are scrawled into my current DM's notebook. Make of them what you will.

  • New aphorism: The DM is always free to introduce a new complication.
  • Pledge-object: an object of value given by the higher status party as part of a negotiation; if the higher status one breaks the pledge, the object is forfeit.
  • Nullset Jones: a hypermathematician who specializes in Zero Theory, the math of zeroes, null sets, etc. Real first name is Larry.
  • Spell Focus: a class of magic items in a material components heavy game. Non-exhaustible replacement for components. Examples: Wand of Sleep Focus, Staff of All First Level MU Spells Focus
  • OK, but what if mounts and pack animals were intelligent, speaking NPCs for hire?
  • Jean-Luc Marion uses the term "saturated phenomenon" to describe an "absolutely unique, irreproducible, and largely unpredictable event." I.e. any old RPG session.
  • Undead skeletons are heavier than you'd think because of all the dark matter in their bones.
  • "Every man must create his own system or else he is slave to another man's" --William Blake
  • Mustardface, Agent of SLIVER (Sovereign Locus of Investigation & Vindication for Extradimensional Realities)
  • Cyclops lost his eye in the war, got a beholder eye replacement.
  • Inhuman Miscellany of the Underpeople - An MU with access to this tome is double effective at researching any spell castable by a Derro savant, but each success 1 in 6 cumulative chance of devolving into one of these wretched creatures.
  • Torture Lantern (no clue why I wrote this down)

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:03 AM

    Torture Lantern - the trapped being inside the lantern prison is tortured to produce light. Gruesome and hope you have a pack full of live pixies because they don't survive the torture long.

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  2. Cyclops with replaced eye is a thing in DCC RPG: "Prime cyclopes carry sacks of variegated eyeballs, which they exchange with the eye in their socket to expand their visual acuity into still broader expanses of space, time, and dimension." I ended up using this idea in my Wilderlands of High Fantasy 5e campaign, where the players were surprised when the cyclops replaced his eye with one that shoots fiery rays like Cyclops from X-men.

    Torture Lantern reminds me of Vampire Hunter D's Time-Bewitching Incense, but that only worked on vampires. It ended up among my notes after watching the anime. It's chock full of cool shit one can use for his campaigns, and I can't imagine what other goodies might the novels contain.

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  3. The pledge object is like a dowry. A dowry is given to secure the woman’s comfort should something go badly.

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  4. Torture Lantern. The subject must succeed a Saving Throw versus Magic Device or they will suffer d6 damage and will have to answer a question with the truth (although without giving more details than the simplest possible answer).

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  5. Torture lantern light the trapped soul screaming in agony.

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