Dolmenwood Session 6-7: Bits of Ragged Hollow Nightmare

Previously, the party explored the old Windler House.

Gunkuss the Grim: A purple wood-grue fighter, who travels to sate his curiosity and find treasure. Smells like cotton candy.

Dombo the Green: An unintelligent slacker Moss-Dwarf magic-user. Incredibly buff for a wizard. Can talk to birds. Smells earthy.

Episcopia the Judge: A nerdy human cleric of the church of the one true god. Kind of a nerd. Wants to FIGHT EVIL. 

Boots Tippler: A grimalkin bard who looks like Garfield. An extravagant showman, desires Fame and Fortune and something else starting with an F. 

Archibald Vantorez: A posh, upper-class human from a far-off Eastern land with dreams of becoming a cartographer. Is an Illusionist. 

The party returned to town and began asking around for possible quests to go on. In the tavern, the barkeep, a woman named Saerlaith (ser-la) said that a group of bandits to the South had been waylaying their shipments of ale. The party, worried that all the alcohol in the town would dry up, agreed to help. Episcopia, who is really more loosely associated with the party than a member, agreed to go with them, based on a rumor that to the South lay a dungeon housing a holy chalice with the power to revive the dead.

Also in the inn, the party hired a new member, Archibald Vantorez, and a chef named Mannog (a level 0 NPC with 4 hit points).

The party road a few hours South where they found the road blocked by fallen logs. Figuring this was a trap and they would be ambushed by bandits, the party lay a trap of their own: they waited till nightfall and had Vantorez and Mannog stand around like lost merchants to draw in the bandits. Episcopia cast Detect Evil, which had the effect of illuminating the bandits when they got close enough, cleverly letting the party get the drop on them (since Detect Evil has a range of 60' and torches can only see 30').

The party got the jump on the bandits, only to find that the bandits had with them an immense Ogre. Dombo put the Ogre to sleep while the rest of the party fought them. Vantorez very narrowly survived. 

The party brought back the supply of ale and the Ogre's head, earning a reward from the barkeep: 500 GP and free drinks. Vantorez, Dombo, and Gunkus all began drinking their heads off, while Episcopia left to go to the church and Boots only pretended to drink. The three drunkards blacked out.

When they awoke, Vantorez and Dombo found that all their gold had gone missing. They asked the barkeep and discovered they had given it all to a silver-haired elf in exchange for a unicorn, and she reported the elf had travelled South with several other elves, dragging large cages containing magical beasts. 

Gunkuss awoke to find a tattoo of a stump on his arm, along with a ceremonial set of robes and a dagger. He had vague memories of joining a cult. He asked the wizard, Candleswick, who recognized the stump as the symbol of a particularly incompetent cult of short creatures living in a hole under an oak tree, the same dungeon fabled to contain the holy chalice Episcopia had heard of. While talking to the wizard, Vantorez noticed his icy-blue eyes. The party realized he was almost certainly a frost-elf in disguise, but left the investigation of that for another day.

*            *            *

A few hours South they found the swindlers sitting around a fire. They discovered they were actually illusionists, using magic to disguise themselves as Elves and cages of ordinary animals as magical beasts. They had one real magical creature: a basilisk, which had a helmet on its head that blocked its magical gaze from petrifying people. 

Boots introduced himself to the con-artists as a traveling musician. The leader of the group was an elderly woman named Madame Laverna. Boots used his music to charm two of the four, and the rest of the party managed to overpower them. 

They let the non-basilisk animals go free, then locked their foes in the cages and left them there with the keys on the ground, presuming someone would eventually come to let them out. Probably. They kept the Basilisk.

Notes

• The encounter with the con-artists was improved entirely as the story went along, inspired by the results in the carousing table. The illusionists were inspired by the Menagerie from Last Unicorn.
• The cult Gunkuss joined is obviously the cult from Hole in the Oak.
• I keep all characters at the same number of experience points because frankly, it's too damn complicated to have them all at different amounts.

Next Time: The party explores a dungeon under an old oak tree...

Dolmenwood Session Report 4-5: Windler House from Ragged Hollow Nightmare

 Previously, the party ran through Winter's Daughter and reunited an Elf princess with her lover. 

The party:

Gunkuss the Grim: A cowardly wood-grue fighter, who travels to sate his curiosity and find treasure. Recently bit the head off a magical dove at a wedding and was permanently turned purple, which he describes as an improvement.

Dombo the Green: An unintelligent Moss-Dwarf magic-user. Wants to become a better mage but is not interested in putting in much effort. Can talk to birds.

Episcopia the Judge: A nerdy human cleric of the church of the one true god. Kind of a nerd. Wants to FIGHT EVIL. 

Boots Tippler: A grimalkin bard who looks like Garfield. An extravagant showman, desires Fame and Fortune and something else starting with an F. 

In between sessions, Brad was spirited away by the Elven Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk to dwell with her in her tower forevermore as her consort/pet (his player had to drop out cause hey it's college).

In session 4, the party began exploring the town of Prigwort, which I played as a combination of Prigwort from Dolmenwood's zine issue 6 and the module Ragged Hollow Nightmare. After asking around town and hearing a few rumors, they decided to explore the old Windler House (detailed in Ragged Hollow Nightmare). The house had been owned by a wealthy aristocratic family, the last of whom had been a paranoid inventor who guarded the family's wealth with a multitde of traps. People also claimed the house was haunted.

• The party decided to enter the house through the window, reasoning that doors are usually trapped (it wasn't but better safe than sorry). They found themselves in a large study and made the acquaintance of a pale ghostly butler named Andrew. Andrew showed no awareness that he was a ghost or that the house was completely fallen apart and rigged with death traps, and instead acted like the party were normal visitors to Master Windler. The party had a good time roleplaying with Andrew. I played him as completely confused and oblivious to anything that was going on- he didn't notice when the party started basically tearing down the house looking for stuff, or later on when they started finding his master's reanimated corpse.  
• The party bypassed several traps, including a deadly chandelier and a bunch of shrimp-forks rigged to trip wires, mostly by throwing about a hundred books into the room until the traps ran out of ammo. They also found Andrew's long-dead skeleton, which had several shrimp-forks still embedded in his skull.
• They eventually made their way to the top floor where they found Master Windler, who was now a reanimated zombie, which they made short work of and then burned in the fireplace just in case he decided to resurrect. Andrew showed no awareness of the fact that his master was obviously a zombie, only saying he was of "slightly ill health as of late."
• The party also found a pair of clockwork shoes with tiny buttons on the heels. Boots put them on and tried clicking his heels together and was immediately launched 60 feet in the air, crashing through the ceiling and landing on the roof, where he took 13 damage and fell unconscious, prompting the party to return to town to heal up. 
• The party returned the next day. While exploring they found that the last room was filled with snakes. 
• Dombo, who can talk to birds, lured in two magpies. They used one of them as bait for the snakes, luring about half the snakes out through the window. Gunkuss, who had developed a taste for birds, ate the other one.
• The party attempted to fight the other 6 snakes, which went about as well as all of their battles:
• They paralyzed two of them with their magical freezing mirror from the tomb of Sir Oisin. 
• Dombo, who has 6 constitution and 4 hit points, got bitten by a snake, failed his save against poison, and fell unconscious. The party carried him off on their mule.
• The snakes failed their morale and ran away.

Notes

• I added in Andrew's dead corpse to the kitchen area of the module- it's a good way to telegraph all the danger in the house, plus it's fun to meet his ghost and then run into his corpse.
• I also added in the master of the house as a zombie in the bedroom, since I wanted a creepy but not-that-hard combat encounter. In the actual module his shadow shows up later in another area, but since I wasn't too sure my players would ever actually go there I figured something should happen now.
• Ragged Hollow Nightmare is a fun little intro scenario since it scatters hooks all over the place and asks the players to follow them. I was a little worried because the players picked what I initially had thought was the most boring of the hooks, but the process of searching for traps actually ended up being really fun, and Andrew the forgetful ghost butler was good comic relief.
• The big "Lesson" I'm learning is that very frequently when reading old-school modules I will think, "how the hell are the players supposed to solve that?" and have an impulse to add clues or make it easier, and every single time the players manage to come up with a solution without too much thought. 
• For example, I was nervous that the clue to get into the tomb in Winter's Daughter would be too opaque ("call to the companions," meaning say the name of the guy's dogs), but the players pretty quickly worked out what they were supposed to do and then went about investigating the tomb to find out his dog's names. 
• Similarly, I was worried about them just walking into the rooms in The Windler House and getting a face full of traps, but once they knew the place was trapped they were super cautious. By the end of it, I actually felt bad there weren't more traps, since they did lots of things that weren't necessary- they checked every single door and window, and at one point chopped through the walls of a room rather than using the door (for some reason they were certain the door was trapped). 
• They also tend to look more carefully for treasure than I anticipate. In this session they pulled all the books out of a shelf to look for hidden doors, pulled the wallpaper off the walls of a room to look for secrets, and looked under all the paintings in the house. In the future I need to start hiding more treasure in places like that.

Next Time: The players fight bandits and get wasted

Dolmenwood Session Report 1-3: Winter's Daughter

I've started running a Dolmenwood campaign for a few players from the D&D club at my college. The system being used is Old School Essentials with a few classes (Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Illusionist, Paladin, and Ranger) from the Advanced Edition, plus separate race and class (I wrote up race versions of the demihumans of Dolmenwood, I might post it here at some point). Our first adventure was Winter's Daughter.

The party consists of:

Gunkus the Grim- A Wood-Grue (kind of a bat-faced flute-playing goblin thing) fighter. The name is actually a misnomer. He is fascinated with humans and travels to sate his curiosity (and to find treasure!). In play has established himself as kind of a coward, inclined to take the money and run and avoid any heroics. Has convinced the rest of the party he's a majestic, well-travelled hero who has fought monsters, in reality is as inexperienced as everyone else. Agile, but not very tough.

Brad - A human fighter. Brad is a hillbilly with a can-do attitude. He worked at the local sawmill with his parents but was enchanted by Gunkus's stories and now works as his squire, which mostly means carrying him around in his backpack. Strong but not too smart. Wants to be an Arthurian Hero.

Dombo the Green - A Moss-Dwarf. His player rolled randomly for class and race so he is a Magic-User despite having 8 Intelligence. Was inspired to leave his small Moss-Dwarf village in the woods and become an adventurer by Gunkus's heroic tales. An idealist and a slacker. Wants to become a better mage but not put in too much effort. Plays the Hurdy-Gurdy (he rolled "musical instrument" as one of his starting items). 

Episcopia the Judge - A human cleric. Started off a follower of the old Druidic religion until her parents were killed, then was raised as an orphan by the Church of the One True God. Became an adventurer to FIGHT EVIL and solve religious secrets. Kind of a nerd.

Boots Tippler - A Grimalkin (3' tall cat with shapeshifting powers) bard. Looks like Garfield. An extravagant showman, desires Fame and Fortune and something else starting with an F. 

As a note, every single member of the party rolled slightly below average stats (between 60 and 62) except for Episcopia, whos stats total 54. Also, I changed Sir Chyde's name to "Sir Oisin" (pronounced Ush-een) for an authentically Irish feel.

1. As the adventure begun, Brad had mystical dreams where a woman in white appeared to him, professed her love to him, and implored him to explore an ancient tomb to bring her a magical ring, promising her heart to him if he could do so. He gathered his four friends and convinced them (though Gunkuss was skeptical of Brad's "Wet dreams") to go explore the tomb from his vision.
   
   
2. In the first room, they found four religious objects on stands. The first four party members entered and nothing happened, but as soon as Boots (the only party member not a member of the Church) entered the objects came to life and attacked! The five of them ran outside and realized the objects did not seem to be able to pass through the tomb entrance. Episcopia did a quick ritual to initiate Boots into the church (sprinkling dirt on his head), though Boots crossed his fingers behind his back. This time when they entered the objects did not come to life, and the party stashed them in their backpack to sell back in town (though Episcopia called it "returning them to the church).
   
   
3. At one point the party encountered a toad that hopped in front of them and said the single word "betrayal." As it tried to hop away Episcopia (rolling Dex) grabbed it, although she was disappointed to find it didn't still talk. The party christened it Dombo, after their Moss-Dwarf companion.
   
   
4. A few rooms down they found a small girl, Adeen, trapped in a circle of mushrooms (added in as a fun OSR-style challenge for the party). She said she was under attack and needed rescuing (Boots called her "the most unconvincing person I've ever met"). Episcopia went in to grab her but was entrapped by the spell of the mushrooms and began telling the other party members to come in as well. The party members used a grappling hook as a lasso to drag the two of them out, although Episcopia got hit in the process. They then returned the girl back to town, vowing to come back soon and complete the tomb. They also gave her Dombo as a pet, and continued to visit her like every session which was pretty adorable.
   
   Back in town the girl's older sister explained that her mother had gone missing after going to look for Adeen, and asked them find her shield and return it to them. 
   
   
5. The party returned a few days later. They found a room with two floating, animated skeletons, and five coffins. The skeletons were covered in slime that was dripping from the ceiling. The party talked to the skeletons, who revealed themselves to be Sir Oisin's parents, and the rest of the coffins to contain their other three children. One of the party had the idea to throw the children's skeletons into the slime and re-animate them as well, allowing the entire family to reunite as dancing skeletons (the module doesn't say what happens if you touch the skeletons with slime but I liked the idea and it seemed reasonable). Gunkuss bottled up some of the slime for later.
   
   
6. The party passed by an enchanted mirror that froze Boots in place. Clued in by scrapes on the floor leading from the room to outside, they dragged his body outside, and found that sunlight reversed the mirror's effects. They took the mirror with them as a weapon, and later used it to defeat some worms (they got lucky and all the worms failed their saving throws).
   
   
7. The party found two large stone doors, guarded by two stone dogs and the inscription "Call to the Companions." They reasoned that saying the names of the dogs would get them through. They found the name of the first one, Chedr, then spent about ten minutes trying to guess the names of other cheeses the other dog might be named. Eventually they went back to searching and eventually found Flaegr's name written in an old book, allowing them entry into the tomb.
   
   
8. Inside the tomb they found Sir Oisin's coffin, and his ghost. He explained that his soul was bound to his magic ring, that if the players took it to his beloved in fairy they would be reunited, and that there was a portal to Fairy somewhere in the tomb. He implored them to help him. He also implored them not to loot all the treasure in his tomb, which the players promptly ignored.
   
   
9. Exploring around the tomb the players found the portal to fairy hidden in the basement, warded by floating candles. Passing through they found themselves at the edge of a frozen lake, with Adeen's mother's body laying next to it and a giant white marble tower in the center. They poured the slime on the skeleton and brought her back into the tomb, bringing her back to life. 
   
   
10. The party approached the tower, ready to explore it and find the princess. They nervously knocked on the door, and had it opened by a goblin and a troll, who explained that this tower was full of guests awaiting the wedding between the lady of the wood and Sir Oisin, and refused the party entry due to them not being on the guest list. To get inside, they posed as a band, which he seemed to accept after they played a song. 
    
    
11. As he led the party inside, the goblin tried to convince them to eat from his magic sack of mushrooms (Winter's Daughter has a list of various random mushroom effects). Dombo tried one and gained +1 to his Wisdom score, inspiring the rest of the party to try as well. Gunkuss gained +1 to his Constitution, Brad shrank to six inches tall and spent the rest of the adventure being carried around by Gunkuss, and Boots began vomiting bugs and had to be left outside so as not to cause a scene. Episcopia turned transparent for an hour, which she spent sneaking around the tower looking for danger. 
    
    
12. The party made it up to the top of the tower where they found the lady, who revealed herself to be a princess of Elfland named Princess Snowfall-at-Dusk, and that she was awaiting her lover, Sir Oisin. Brad felt betrayed since he had been promised her hand in marriage. As thanks for their role in reuniting them, the princess offered them either the entire contents of her jewelery box or a wish. The players settled on jewels, and got like 1500 XP each, enough to reach level 2.
    
    
13. The party, since they had claimed to be a band, played at the wedding. They did a splendid job (they rolled 2d6+charisma and got a 12) and impressed all the elfin nobility. Unfortunately, Gunkuss caused a scene by biting the head off a magical dove (this wasn't based on any kind of roll his player just thought it'd be funny) and the party was escorted out by security.
    
    Eating the dove also had the side effect of turning Gunkuss purple. Forever.
    
    
14. On their way back to Prigwort the party encountered two red-hooded figures performing a human sacrifice at a ring of standing stones (technically the module has this at the beginning but I placed it at the end, since encountering the Drune is a weird first encounter IMO). They confronted the figures, who identified themselves as members of the Watchers of the Wood (their real name is the Drune, but I decided to just call them watchers to make them more mysterious), a shady cabal of sorcerers who perform human sacrifices to bolster their magic, which they claimed kept the Elves out of Dolmenwood, and the sacrifice explained that she was totally willing. 
    
    
15. Episcopia tried to talk the sacrifice out of it and convert her to following the Church of the One True God, but was unsuccessful. Gunkuss sneaked up behind the watchers and picked their pockets, earning a wand and a golden bracelet on the first attempt but being noticed on the second, causing the watchers to attack.
    
    
16. The party got lucky with initiative and their attack rolls, and knocked one of the watchers unconscious (Episcopia said she wanted to non-lethal damage and I didn't want to look up the rules for it so I just said he was knocked unconscious when he reached 0 HP), but the second watcher hit Gunkuss with a magic missile, bringing him to -9 HP (one away from death) and knocking him out. She held a dagger to his throat and threatened to slice it open unless the party retreated.  The party acquiesced, loaded Gunkuss onto their mule, and headed back to town, taking with them piles of jewels and treasure...

Notes and Lessons

1. The party pretty quickly adapted to the OSR style. I was nervous about them dying constantly so I adapted Into the Odd's dying rules by saying that characters only die at -10 HP but have to make saves vs paralysis with a penalty equal to their negative HP every time they take damage bringing them to below 0 or fall unconscious, with unconscious characters dying if their wounds are not tended to in an hour. They actually ended up being super cautious anyway- they pretty much retreated from any fight they couldn't immediately win, and in general spent a lot more time scoping things out and investigating stuff than I thought they would.
   
   
2. You can actually downgrade lethality significantly just by playing opponents as actually intelligent beings and not as automatons who fight to the death. I tried to keep in mind what the watchers actually want: they want to complete their ritual and, failing that, survive to do it another day. The remaining one could have easily killed Gunkuss but would probably have been killed by the party, so I figured threatening to slit his throat was a reasonable action for her to take. She actually lost initiative the round it happened so there was a fun back-and-forth of the party debating if they thought they could take her out before she could kill their friend. 
   
   
3. Winter's Daughter is a fantastic module. It took us about 2 1/2 sessions but the players also spent a fair bit of time creating characters, introducing themselves to each other, and messing around in town. It's a bit light on actual enemies- the nightworms are really the only thing the party actually has to fight. The party enjoyed it but I think if I re-ran it I might add in one more combat encounter for the party to face.

Next Time: The party returns to Prigwort and explores a mysterious house full of traps...

Weird Genders and Sexes for Fantastical Races

One thing that has forever bugged me about science-fiction is how almost every single alien basically follows the same sex and gender dimorphism as humans: females are smaller, males are larger and rule everything, blah blah blah. If you're especially unlucky you get the trope where the guys are all monsters and the girls are all super hot. If you're double especially unlucky and you have the misfortune to be reading Ringworld you get the trope where the men run society and all the females are off-screen the whole book.

Anyway, here's some reproduction methods and gender roles for your wacky alien species. I've tried to take sexual roles from real-world organisms and try to extrapolate how that would work culturally. I've included multiple cultures per species, since obviously people have loads of different gender roles despite all having the same reproductive strategy.

1. Swamplings: Time-Based Protandry

Swamplings live in wetlands and kind of resemble frogs with bio-luminescent anglerfish lures and five eyes going all the way around their heads. They practice Protandry: they are born as males and remain males through adolescence and adulthood. Upon reaching a venerable age, they turn into females if un-mated, becoming more hardy but less physically capable. They reproduce via sexual reproduction, and the females lay eggs. 

a. Northern Swamplings: The Northern Swamplings are nomadic, travelling around the Great Blue Swamp. Their men are seen as expendable and used as warriors and hunters, while the women are responsible for taking care of the children and serving as rulers. Monogamous pairs are formed with one older female and one younger male; when the older female dies the younger male will change sex and eventually take on another mate. Homosexual behavior (but not "marriage") is considered normal for males, since there are always more men than women, but unacceptable for females.

b. Marsh Swamplings: The Marsh Swamplings live in reed huts, keeping fish as livestock. In their tribe, polyandry is common, with most women taking multiple males as husbands. Marsh Swamplings believe marriage is for life, so men who have been married are not allowed to marry again after becoming female. Because of this, first-born children will usually not marry until old age. Husbands are expected to do almost all of the child-rearing and farming together with their brother-husbands, while Wives mostly handle politics and make art. Homosexual marriages are legal only for older women, though some families will look down on it.

2. Ratfolk: Hermaphroditic

Ratfolk look like six-limbed rats with no eyes and long tentacles on their nose. All ratfolk are hermaphroditic, capable of both becoming pregnant and impregnating others.

a. Mountain Ratfolk: Mountain Ratfolk have a very traditional culture that emphasizes respect for one's parents. Their culture practices arranged marriages. It is traditional for the child from a higher-ranked family to be the one to get pregnant, since the traditional book of Rodentism claims that the child will have the soul of one of it's mother's ancestors. Ratfolk are interested in human gender norms as a cool exotic trend, and deliberately mimicking the dress-style matching one's current sex has become somewhat of a fad. 

b. Hill Ratfolk: Hill Ratfolk deeply value wisdom and learning. They believe in equal marriages, and take turns being the one to be the mom. Hill Ratfolk find the human concept of gender incredibly alien and do not understand it.

3. Elves: More than Two Sexes

Elves look like tall, ethereally attractive humans, with strange eye colors. While humans have only two sexes, elves have five: Up, Down, Strange, Charm, and Effervescent. Each sex is capable of mating with one of the other four. The sexes are distinguished by a complicated combination of eye and hair color. Elves don't naturally have external genitals but are easily capable of growing male or female genitalia compatible with humans at will, explaining where half-elves come from. Elves don't need to lay eggs or give birth, instead doing some weird bullshit magic thing that makes new babies grow out of flowers. Humans are terrible at telling elf gender, instead usually assuming they are men or women and using pronouns based on that. Elves can easily tell which human gender a human is, but use the same pronoun for all humans that they use for especially ugly animals and certain fungal infections. 

a. Valley-Elves: Valley-Elves have strict gender roles for all five genders. Laws on marriage is exceedingly complicated and makes little sense to anyone from other cultures- marriages are allowed between certain genders of elves but not others, and in some cases Valley-Elves may take multiple partners. All of this is the result of thousands of years of culture, tradition, and religion. For example, a Strange Elf with a Charm Wife may also take an Effervescent wife or a second Charm wife, but a Strange Elf with an Up wife may not take on any more lovers. Same-sex marriage is prohibited. However, Valley-Elves in the past have been granted the legal status to identify as a different gender than their birth sex, inheriting all the legal rights as such. 

b. Wood-Elves: Wood-Elves are largely gender-equal, though there are still expected gender roles and stereotypes. Same-sex marriage is legal.

4. Hobkins: Bidirectional Sex Changes

Hobkins, also called "Desert Goblins," are short humanoid creatures with scaly skin, large eyes, giant dog-like ears, and long, prehensile tongues. Hobkin determine sex based on characteristics, rather than the other way around. In any group of Hobkin, the largest 50% will switch to being Female, growing beautiful red and green scales around their necks. The smaller 50% will spontaneously switch to being Male, growing camouflaged skin-colors . "Large" seems to be somewhat cultural but is a combination of height, mass, and strength. Hobkin who leave their tribes to live amongst other folk often find themselves much smaller than everyone else, resulting in the majority of Hobkin wandering the world being male. This has led to the perception among the uneducated that Hobkin are entirely male

a. Desert-Hobkin: The most common type of Hobkin. As you might expect, Desert Hobkin have a female-dominated society; males are not allowed to own property or hold political power, and their only role is to marry a woman. If one of the couple switches sexes, the marriage is annuled, and the individuals are allowed to re-marry, but otherwise divorce is outlawed. The dominant religion, Jershonism, even teaches that a male's afterlife status is entirely determined by his wife's position in the church.

b. Rock-Hobkin: Rock-Hobkin live in caves underground, and make their money off digging for gems. They don't have a concept of marriage or of inheritance; mating is something to be done casually, and all resulting children are raised communally. 

5. Ornix: Facultative Parthenogenesis

Ornix are diminutive Skeksis-looking birds with three legs and a pair of wings, who have opposable talons for holding tools. Ornix have two sexes, female and male, which are determined by the environmental temperature rather than by chromosomes. Ornix are capable of sexual reproduction, but female Ornix are also capable of producing eggs on their own through asexual reproduction. In order to do this, female ornix will engage in mating behavior with other females in order to stimulate ovulation. Some humans see this as a "virgin birth" and believe that the Ornix are thus holy, and will seek them out for religious wisdom. 

a. Mountain Ornix: Mountain Ornix live on the tops of mountains. They have small villages that are entirely female, and the females of a tribe raise all the children communally and grow crops for food. Male Mountain Ornix are expected to leave their home when they become adults at age 27, after which they become nomads, hunting for their own food in the wild and travelling from village to village and mating with the females there. Ornix women will often form lesbian "couples", though their society has no concept of marriage or sexual pairings as different from close friendships.

b. Jungle Ornix: Jungle Ornix live in the canopy of jungles, and mostly subsist on prey they can hunt from the jungle undergrowth. They have strictly independent family units consisting of a mated male-female or female-female pair and their children, who rarely interact with others.

Redwall-Inspired Campaign - Sessions 1 and 2: The Burial Mound of Gilliard the Owl

So my Redwall campaign only ended up lasting two sessions, but here's a write-up of it anyway. Maybe someday I'll get to try running it again.

Resources used this session:
Burial Mound of Gilliard Wolfclan, a simple one-page-dungeon I based the adventure on
One Hundred Hexes
Mausritter, used for inspiration and settlement names

The Principal Cast:
"Peaches" a Weasel knight with black fur and a skeletal body. Very strong.
Hawthorne Black, a Weasel bard (chosen because "Weasels like to dance" with silky black fur. Surprisingly intelligent.
Dil Danger, a lumpy-faced mole thief, stunningly attractive.
Sigurd Ericssson, a snake wizard with a scarred appearance, an eyepatch, and a wizard hat.

Yes, we started off with two black weasels. Two players both really wanted to be weasels and rolled "black fur," and neither of them wanted to switch colors even though I don't think there are actually black Least Weasels.

As a side note, all the characters rolled terribly for their HP, despite me bumping up the Hit Die from Old School Essentials, with Dil Danger having a single hit point. The highest HP was 4, rolled on a d10.

The party started in the town of Acorn Hill. Their supposed goal was to rescue a mouse named Warren, who had gone wandering off in the direction of the Burial Mound of Gilliard, a giant owl who had ravaged the kingdom before being slain by a group of rats and mice. He was buried on a hill about a day away.

On the way there, the party encountered an old mill, fallen into disrepair. Inside they found the dead bodies of three mole lumberjacks, all of them missing their teeth. In the next room, they managed to sneak up on the culprits: a group of tooth fairies, who had with them a pile of teeth. The group managed to kill one, scaring off the other two. Peaches collected the teeth and stuck them all in her mouth.

Finally, the group made it to the mound, where there was an old well. After some argument about whether to use Sigurd as a rope, they made it down the well. There they met a group of Weasel brigands, who were all drinking. With them was the missing mouse, Warren, who it seemed had quickly joined up with the group and was also quite drunk. One of the weasels, named Hogor, complained that a turtle named Skazic had taken over his small party and become the new leader.

The party bribed one of the weasels, named Fleaback, while Hawthorne used his magical music to charm two others, Grayjaw and Hisk. With the support of the three, the party convinced Skazic to let them join up with the group. Skazic agreed if the party would explore the rest of the dungeon and bring back treasure. He sent with them three of the weasels, including Hogor, who Skazic asked Sigurd to dispose of and make it look like an accident.

In the dungeon, the group fought off some centipedes with missile weapons.

They found the burial mound of Gilliard the Owl, an altar with two silver cups on it. The party got one of their henchweasels to pick up a cup, and heard a booming voice: "Who? Who disturbs my tomb?" The Owl asked for a delicious meal in return for letting the rest of them live. Sigurd whispered to Hogor "let's make a run for it," at which point nobody else in the party ran for it but Hogor. The owl descended upon Hogor and tore him limb from limb. Meanwhile, Dil danger used his stealth skill to sneak up to the altar and open it, finding Gilliard's skeleton. He broke both femurs which (as everyone knows) lay the spirit to rest and caused Gilliard's ghost to dissipate. Down one henchweasel, the party continued on.

After fighting off some green slimes and contending with a poisoned door trap, the party found a large group of fearsome skeletons. Rather than fighting them one-on-one they elected to run away, hoping to recruit the entire Weasel bandit gang in their fight.

Unfortunately, then finals happened and the group fell apart so we never finished our weasel adventure game. Oh well.

Total playtime: 3 1/2-ish hours

Session Report: Two Into-the-Odd One-Shots

I originally posted about this on Reddit, but figured I'd post it here too. A friend of mine was visiting and wanted to play D&D with me. I figured this was the first time to espouse the virtues of old school play and run some Into the Odd. We rolled on the race table from Two Goblins in a Trenchcoat, since I figured people would get a kick out of that, and I gave them each an extra d6 HP to start with. I started off with a brief "OSR means rulings not rules, and don't try to fight things" intro and off we went.

Adventure 1
I ran Quintessential Dungeon, slightly altered to include some "OSR-style challenges" from Goblin Punch, and with some random encounters.

-The Characters:
Silence: a dim-witted skeleton filled with bees
Jilly: a prosthyletizing orc.

Highlights:

-The gang got past a group of goblins by bribing them with one of Silence's skeleton arms.

-The two of them went crazy in the room with enchanted food and had a bunch of potion effects; Silence got super strength, Jilly grew an extra arm, and then they switched bodies.

-The gang almost got killed by a group of animated clothing, the only foe they actually tried to beat in a fair fight. Jilly went unconscious (strangled by a shirt) but Silence managed to kill the last of the clothes as her HP was ticking down to zero.

-The gang found an enchanted fairy circle with two children inside, who begged them to enter it and fight the fairies keeping them prisoner. They figured out its trick (anything in the circle is enchanted and will do anything to get more people in) by sending in their dog. They lured the kids to the edge, then bludgeoned one into unconsciousness and dragged her body back to town to get the reward money. They gave up on the other kid and the dog.

-They came across a gang of orcs taking a hobbit prisoner. They promised to ally with the orcs to fight a dragon, saying that Silence was a magical skeleton and anything that harmed her would drop dead. They tried to grab gold from the dragon's hoard and leave the orcs to die, but Jilly got caught in dragonfire and was incinerated. The hobbit, a magician named Stilton, became the player's new party member.

-Stilton and Silence managed to find all the gems and escape with the treasure!

Adventure 2
This time was with a dungeon, randomly generated on the fly from tables in Into the Odd and Maze Rats. The dungeon was a series of weird eldritch tunnels they found in a library.

The characters:
Godwin, an ex-cultist ironclad elf
Balthazar, a ratcatcher rookling skilled at picking locks.
They were accompanied by their 2 hounds and Balthazar's packmule (they rolled a lot of animals in their starting gear)

-They found a lake full of acid that melted anything non-metal. They later found some steel twine they tied to a fish hook to fish up the treasure: an amulet that made you grow octopus arms and a potion of super strength.

-They found a brain in a jar on a pillar, which revealed itself to be Clovis, a janitor who had been turned into a brain to answer questions 200 years ago. All he wanted was to see the sea where he grew up again. To my surprise the characters actually pried his jar off and carried him around on a mule for the rest of the adventure. He ended up being a helpful ally, giving them hints about weaknesses of various enemies.

-They found a cult of old men guarding an arcanum, the Babble Book that lets you talk to anything. Using some fire, they scared off the old men and got the book.

-They met a mercenary who they hired to come with them, making an absolutely massive party.

-They came to some pods that combined anything put in them.They put in their two dogs to make a terrible mutant dog that was confused and afraid. Balthazar combined himself with Clovis so the once-janitor could again feel and see the world, and promised to take him to the sea shore, but developed face-blindness due to complications with the transfer.

-They found a hallway made of flesh, which they used the Babble Book to talk to. It turned out to be the decaying body of an ancient Sun God, who only wanted to see the sun again. They used a flare gun, Balthazar's starting oddity, to make a hole in the ceiling. The Sun God thanked them.

-They found the rest of the cult of old men. Their massive party easily beat them up and took their treasure, then escaped to the surface!

All in all both sessions went really well! I was impressed by how quickly the group started trying to think outside the box to get around things and resorting to trickery or plans to get past enemies. I was also impressed with how well randomly generating a dungeon on the fly worked in the 2nd session- the tables provided in Into the Odd and Maze Rats are great, and it was fun when not even I knew what would happen next.

Redwall-esque Races for OSE

One thing I've been wanting to do for a while is run a Redwall-style campaign where the characters are all mice, rats, hedgehogs, etc. So here are some races, specifically written for Old School Essentials but compatible with any ruleset that has race separate from class. I've also written some notes on which common race each one can be used to stand in for when converting modules.

Sidebar- Size and Weight
For the sake of comparison, I've listed heights and weights of the different species, using "Woodland Feet" and "Woodland Stone." A Woodland Foot is about equal to one human inch, while a Woodland Stone is about equal to a Human ounce. You can use the stone with Delta's Stone Encumbrance system. Mostly this is just to make it easier to picture how big different animals are in relation to each other.

Mouse

Mus musculus
Average Height: 3 feet
Average Weight: 6 stone
Lifespan: 2 years
Kinda Like: Halflings
Mice are friendly and welcoming to outsiders. Few of them become great adventurers, instead tending towards simple, quiet lives.

▶ Ability Modifiers: +1 DEX, -1 STR
▶ Short: Mice are too small to use 2-handed weapons or longbows.
▶ Defense Bonus: Mice get +2 armour class against foes greater than human size.
▶ Stealth: Mice are good at sneaking and hiding. If using d6 thief skills, Mice get +1 stealth and have 5-in-6 stealth skill in the wilderness. Otherwise, Mice have a 90% chance to hide in the wilderness and have a 2-in-6 chance of successfully hiding in shadows or behind cover in a dungeon, exactly the same as a Halfling.
▶ Saving Throw Bonus: Mice get +2 to all saving throws against Wands, Breath Weapons, and Spells.

Rat

Rattus norvegicus
Average Height: 7-8 feet
Average Weight: 28 stone
Lifespan: 2 years
Kinda Like: Humans, Orcs
Rats are very social, and have a culture that emphasizes the greater good over individuality. There are many aggressive groups of rats, but there are just as many who become great heroes or leaders.

▶ Ability Modifiers: +1 CHA, +1 STR, -1 WIS
▶ Leadership: Hirelings and Retainers of rats gain +1 morale and +1 loyalty
▶ Climbers: Rats are good climbers. If using d6 thief skills, rats gain +2 to their climb skill. If using percent skills, Rats can Climb Walls as a thief of equivalent level. Rat Thieves add +10% to their Climb Walls skill.

Mole

Talpa europaea
Average Height: 6 feet
Average Weight: 12 stone
Lifespan: 4 years
Kinda Like: Dwarves
Moles are stubborn and practical. They live underground in their tunnels, where they have vast underground cities. Moles are almost totally blind, but have amazing senses of smell and touch, and are deeply in tune with their environments.

▶ Ability Modifiers: +1 WIS, -1 DEX
▶ Senses: Moles have extremely poor eyesight, and cannot see anything more than 30’ away. However, they can use their other senses to detect creatures as well as sight out to 60’, even in the dark. They can only attack targets with missile attacks within 60’.
▶ Detect Doors: Moles can use their senses, when actively searching, to detect hidden and secret doors with a 2-in-6 chance.
▶ Stone Sense: Moles have a 2-in-6 chance of detecting non-magical room traps when searching, or detecting new construction, sliding walls, sloping passages, and other such construction trucks.
▶ Digging: Moles can dig using their paws, and are capable of excavating 5 cubic feet of dirt per turn.

Least Weasel

Mustela nivalis
Average Height: 6 feet
Average Weight: 5 stone
Lifespan: 8 years
Kinda Like: Goblins, Berserkers, Vikings
Weasels are bold, reckless, and unpredictable. Many of them have a distaste for ordinary lives, and seek out adventures, quests, or blood feuds.

▶ Ability Modifiers: +1 STR, -1 INT
▶ Squeeze: Weasels can squeeze through any hole at least 6 inches in diameter
▶ Determined: When an initiative roll is tied, weasels act first, as if they had won initiative. If using individual initiative, weasels get a bonus of +1 to initiative rolls.
▶ Monster Hunter: Weasels get +1 attack bonus against monsters taller than twice their size.

Hedgehog

Erinaceus europaeus
Average Height: 9 feet
Average Weight: 30 stone
Lifespan: 4 years
Kinda Like: Friendy giants, mountain men?
Hedgehogs are pensive loners, towering over other species but rarely picking fights. Most live quiet, brooding lives, living off the land and watching the stars.

▶ Ability Modifiers: +1 CON, -1 CHA
▶ Spines: Hedgehogs are covered in prickly spines. Any foe rolling a 1 or a 2 on an attack roll against a hedgehog suffers an automatic d6 damage.
▶ Ball: Hedgehogs can roll into a ball, sticking their spines out, which takes one round. During this they have Armour Class equivalent to Plate+Shield, but cannot move or take any actions.
▶ Hear Noise: In a quiet environment, Hedgehogs have a 2-in-6 chance to listen at a door or hear sounds.

Pond Turtle

Emys orbicularis
Average Height: 7 feet
Average Weight: 100 stone
Lifespan: 50 years
Kinda Like: Elves
Turtles are careful and thoughtful. They are extremely long-lived, with the oldest remembering twenty generations of rats or mice. Their longevity gives them a ponderous, slow nature, and they can seem frustratingly patient to other species.

▶ Ability Modifiers: +1 CON, -1 DEX
▶ Slow: Turtles are extremely slow, and have a base movement of 90’ (30’).
▶ Swimming: Turtles can hold their breath for 6 hours underwater, and can swim at their normal movement rate.
▶ Defense Bonus: Due to their hard shells, turtles have a natural armour equal to 13. They use this as their base AC unless wearing armour that grants a higher AC.
▶ Lore: Turtles naturally accumulate knowledge throughout their long lives. They have a 2-in-6 chance to know useful details about locales, notable persons, or even magical items.

Lizard

Podarcis muralis
Average Height: 4.5 feet
Average Weight: 6 stone
Lifespan: 10 years
Kinda Like: Tieflings, Half-orcs
Lizards are surprisingly widespread but often disliked, often making their way on the edges of society as merchants or thieves. Many of them follow their own religion, The Lizard Cult.

▶ Ability Modifiers: +1 INT, -1 CON
▶ Regrow Limbs: Lizards are capable of detaching their arms, legs, or tails freely, after which the removed limb wriggles around to attract predators. They can regrow a limb in one week.
▶ Missile Attack Bonus: Due to their advanced eyesight, lizards get a +1 bonus on attacks with missile weapons.
▶ Save Bonus: Due to their advanced eyesight, lizards get a +1 bonus on attacks with missile weapons.

Frog

Lithobates catesbeianus
Average Height: 4 feet
Average Weight: 12 stone
Lifespan: 8 years
Kinda Like: Creepy swamp people, Lizardfolk
Frogs are strange and suspicious of outsiders, forming close-knit clans in the swamps. Thou not altogether hostile, they have no cultural taboos against killing and eating outsiders who get on their bad side. Most travellers try to avoid stumbling onto clans of frogs, and for good reason.

▶ Ability Modifiers: +1 DEX, -1 INT
▶ Jumping: With a running start, frogs are capable of making a 10’ vertical or 20’ horizontal jump.
▶ Swimming: Frogs can swim at their normal movement rate, and can breathe underwater as well as in air.

Viper 

Vipera berus
Average Height: 30 feet long total, 6 feet standing “upright”
Average Weight: 5 stone
Lifespan: 15 years
Kinda Like: ??? Assassins without legs? Who knows.
Vipers are curious, ambitious, and fiercely independent snakes. Though lacking both arms and legs, vipers can hold tools in their mouths and have venomous bites.

▶ Ability Modifiers: +1 DEX, +1 INT
▶ Limbless: Vipers have no arms. They can hold tools in their mouths or tails, but take a -1 to their Dexterity modifier for any tasks requiring precision. They cannot use any weapons or shields.
▶ Armour: Vipers are oddly shaped and must wear specially-constructed armour, which costs twice as much.
▶ Bite Attack: Vipers have a bite attack that deals damage as a sword.
▶Venom: Once per day vipers can choose to inject venom when biting. The creature bitten must make a save versus poison or die. Creatures more than 2x the weight of the viper get a +4 bonus to this save. Creatures 3x it's size or larger are immune.
▶ Sneaky: Vipers are naturally good at sneaking. If using d6 thief skills, Vipers get +2 stealth. Otherwise, Vipers can use Move Silently and Hide in Shadows as a Thief of the same level. Viper Thieves gain +15% to both of these skills.
▶ Infravision: Vipers have the ability to see infrared radiation, and can thus see in the dark out to 90'.

Strange Devices to Stumble Upon in the Dungeon

An Electromagnetic Polarity-Reverser Transducer

Here are ten wacky machines for use with Into the Odd or other OSR games. These can be used whenever you want a weird thing for the players to experiment with. Some of these lend themselves well to tinkering or puzzle solving, some just have random effects for you to screw with things. All of them have a chance to break with each usage since they’re old and falling apart.

Obviously, a lot of these are the kind of thing that can totally screw with a player's character. You might end up being 1 inch tall or turning into a monkey irreversibly. Optionally, you could make any effects temporary for the current dungeon. If you're more hardcore than me you could also add chances that straight up murder the character, eg the teleporter could have a chance of teleporting you into rock or 100 feet in the air, and the alternate-universe exchanger could have a chance of just dumping you into an alternate universe with no way to come back.

The Old Ones

Before all of this, there were the Old Ones. Once a proud civilization, they are now gone from the world, their great works crumbled into dust.

But in the dungeon, the mythic underworld, time runs in strange directions and forgotten things come crawling back. And in long-abandoned corners of the Earth, moss-covered machines still run in the darkness.

Here are ten such machines: 

1. Hypo-Reduction Ray Emitter: Shrink ray
2. Hyper-Amplification Beam: Growth Ray
3. Inversion Centrifuge: Turns objects into their opposite
4. Rosetta Transmitter: Allows communication with anything
5. Biosynthesizer Processor: Brings random objects to life
6. Low-Range Teleportation Device: Teleports you to a random room in the dungeon
7. Quantum Exchanger Portal: Replaces objects and people with an alternate universe version
8. The Enlightenment Transducer: Transmits knowledge and steals memories
9. Gravitation Alteration Switch: Alters gravity in all surrounding rooms
10. Universal Synthesizer: Combines objects

The Hypo-Reduction-Ray Emitter

Pedestal with a laser pointing to it, connected to a wall panel with a single lever. When the lever is pulled the laser shoots at whatever is on the pedestal with a red beam. The beam gradually shrinks anything in it. For every 30 seconds a character spends under the beam their height is reduced by 25% of their original size, granting them +1 dexterity and -1 strength. The minimum a character will shrink is to 1%, granting +4/-4.

For every 30 seconds the device runs it has a 1-in-6 chance of breaking.

The Hyper-Amplification Beam Generator

Pedestal with a laser pointing to it, connected to a wall panel with a single lever. When the lever is pulled the laser shoots at whatever is on the pedestal with a blue beam. The beam gradually enlarges anything in it. For every 30 seconds a character spends under the beam their height is increased by 50%, granting them +1 strength and -1 dexterity. The maximum a character will grow is to 300% original size, granting +4/-4 but probably trapping you in the cavern.

For every 30 seconds the device runs it has a 1-in-6 chance of breaking.

The Inversion Centrifuge

A cylindrical container on a pedestal, with a panel of buttons and levers in front. The container is about 5 feet tall by 3 feet wide. When an object is placed into the container and the right combination of panels are pressed, the door to the container slams shut and spins around rapidly. After 30 seconds the door opens and any object placed inside will have turned to its opposite (up to the GM to figure out).

It has a 1-in-8 chance of breaking with each use.

The Rosetta Transmitter

Looks like a phone booth, with a small speaker and microphone inside that connects via wires to a speaker and microphone attached to a panel. Anything inside the booth is able to talk to anyone standing at the panel. This can be used for speaking to creatures with a different language, inanimate objects, or dead people. Each time it is powered on it works for 2d6 minutes before sparking and shutting down.

It has a 1-in-8 chance of breaking after each use.

The Biosynthesizer Processor

This machine looks like a refrigerator connected via pipes composed of muscle tissue to several large vats of organic materials (blood, viscera, skin, brain matter, bones suspended in a green liquid). Any inorganic material placed into the device will be animated with life. It will become a fleshy version of itself (HD 0-4 depending on size of the object, slam 1-1d10 depending on size, Armor as unarmored unless the object is hard or small, morale 7). Unless it’s a book or a computer it only has animal intelligence, and will be interested in finding food. Creatures start off with a neutral disposition to the PCs.

The device has a 1-in-6 chance of breaking after each use. 

Low-Range Teleportation Device

A pod connected to a control panel. The control panel has a large blinking green button that can be pressed and teleports anything in the pod to a room (roll randomly when the device is first used) in the same dungeon. By messing with the various levers and switches on the device the destination can be changed (re-roll it randomly). 

When the device is used, there is a 1-in-20 chance for each person that something goes wrong. Roll a 1d6:

1. Gain a random mutation  
2. Wrong destination, go to another random part of the dungeon
3. You are teleported but lose some inconsequential organ, take 1d6 nonlethal damage
4. You are fused with another person who was in the pod, or with a random bug.
5. You are swapped with you from an alternate timeline with slightly different memories and appearance. Roll below as if you had used the Quantum Exchanger Portal.
6. You are slightly perpendicular within the timeline. After being teleported you are invisible and intangible, but can still communicate with sound and smell. This effect has a 1-in-4 chance of expiring every ten minutes. 

The device has a 1-in-6 chance of breaking after each use. 

Quantum Exchanger Portal

This doorway, when powered on, exchanges objects and people passing through with a version from an alternate timeline. 

Objects are replaced with a different version from an alternate timeline, make up your own or roll 1d6:

1. Worse version, take -3 weapon/armor enhancement or -3 to all rolls using it
2. Better version, +1 weapon/armor enhancement or -1 to all rolls with it
3. From a smaller universe, is only half the size
4. From a larger universe, is twice the original size
5. Random special ability
6. Made out of flesh and blood

People are swapped with a version from an alternate timeline with slightly different memories and appearance (roll a random appearance detail if you like), plus roll on the following table:

1. Minor differences only, different eye color and add a random appearance detail
2. Character is a different gender.
3. +1d6 and -1d6 to each ability score
4. Reroll background
5. You come from a world with a different dominant species, become a random intelligent animal 
6. Different race
7. Different class
8. Roll Twice (if you get this again roll three times, then four, etc)

If a player character uses it, their character is now trapped in a parallel universe and basically out of the campaign unless the characters have a way of travelling between dimensions, and the player is now playing a different character from an alternate timeline.

The device has a 1-in-6 chance of breaking after each use. 

The Enlightenment Transducer

A helmet hooked up to a large device with a control panel. It has two modes: Forward and Backwards, which can be swapped with a switch on the control panel. If in forward mode, anyone wearing the helmet when the device is activated gains a random knowledge. If in backward mode, the player must say a random memory from their life. They now forget that memory.

The device has a 1-in-8 chance of breaking after each use.

Gravitation Alteration Switch

This device is a single switch that can be set to values from 0-8. When you find it it is set to 4. For each point above 4 gravity is increased by +25%. For each point below 4 gravity is decreased by 25%. 

When set to 8 anything in the rooms must succeed in a save vs paralysis or strength check for each action they want to take, and can only move at a crawl.

When set to 0 there is no gravity, everything floats around and people can move by kicking off walls.

This device has a 1-in-8 chance of breaking each time the switch is moved.

The Universal Synthesizer

This ancient machine consists of three rusty, stained pods and a control panel. Each of them are connected by pipes and exposed electrical wires. The pods to the left and right have open doors, the middle one is locked shut. The control panel has a bunch of levers and a giant glowing button. If the button on the control panel is pressed the doors will snap shut and anything in the two pods will be combined in a horrific fashion and teleported to the middle pod. Each time the machine is used there is a 1% chance that a fly got into one of the pods and is also combined. 

Each time the machine is used roll a 1d8. On a 1 the machine works as normal, but afterwards the machine makes grinding noises and stops working. 

When combining inanimate objects, the result is a tool that does whatever each original object did.

Example: A hammer and a lantern are combined. The result is a hammer that glows like a torch. A smoke bomb and a computer are combined, creating a computer that constantly emits smoke.

When combining a creature with a random object, roll a 1d3 for both physical and mental effects. On a 1, a bad effect happens, on a 2 a purely cosmetic effects, and on a 3 a good effect. Decide what the effects are before rolling. 

Example 2: Bob the fighter is combined with a suit of heavy armor. 

Physical: 1-The character’s movement speed is reduced by 50% 2-The character gets metallic skin but nothing happens, 3-the character gets +1 armor (or +2 AC). 

Mental: 1-The character becomes afraid of fire 2-the character becomes stubborn and rigid 3-The character gains +2 vs mental effects due to having a metal mind.

When two living creatures are combined, it creatures a creature with the higher of the original two characters’ stats for each ability score and saving throw, that has all the individual creature’s abilities. If they ever disagree on what to do they make opposed will tests. If two PCs are combined, keep track of their levels separately, they still level up as individual characters and split xp earned between them however they choose. Plus, roll a d20:

1. The resulting character has two sets of arms. Each one has the physical stats and access to the abilities (eg attack bonus, spellcasting) of the creature it originally came from, and can take one action a round. If one of the original creatures had no arms ignore this.
2. The resulting character has both sets of eyes. For any search, perception, or surprise checks, roll twice and take the better result.
3. The resulting character has two sets of each internal organ. They gain +1d6 HP.
4. The resulting character has two faces, one on the back of their head. Both are able to talk perfectly and control the body.
5. The resulting character is super tall: 1.5 times the average of the two character’s heights.
6. The resulting creature looks like the front half of each original creature stuck together in the middle, each facing the opposite direction. It can see equally well in both directions and walk in both directions.
7. The resulting character is missing some feature. Roll 1d6: 1-mouth, 2-eyes, 3-nose, 4-ears, 5-hair, 6-tongue
8. The resulting creature’s legs are on backwards. It moves at half speed and is uncoordinated.
9. The resulting creatures is poorly put together, and uses the lower of the original creature’s physical scores.
10. The resulting creature is very clever (maybe they have a giant brain that sticks out of their head), and has 1.5x the average of the two constituent creature’s INT scores (unless that would be lower)
11. The constituent creature’s combined brains unlock unknown powers: They can use ESP 1/day (as the magic-user spell)
12. The two creatures’ minds, now sharing a body, become best friends. They each keep their own saving throw value for fear or other mental effects, and are only affected if both of them fail.
13. The resulting creature has two heads.
14. The resulting character talks with two voices at once in unison.
15. The resulting character develops a random quirk or personality trait
16. The constituent character’s different personalities are irreconcilable. They suffer a random insanity.
17. The resulting character is constantly confused and suffers -4 to all mental saving throws.
18. The resulting creatures is poorly put together, and uses the lower of the original creature’s mental scores.
19. Roll a random mutation and make up a reason why it applies
20. Roll twice and combine!

Example: Peker (str 10, dex 15, cha 5, HP 4, can climb walls) and Abbie (str 8, dex 8, cha 14, HP 3, can cast a spell) are combined. They roll a 7, indicating the resulting character has no nose. The result is Pebbie, who has STR 10, Dex 15, Cha 14, and HP 4. Pebbie can climb walls and cast spells but has no nose. 

When I used this in my game of Into the Odd, the characters first made a two-headed dog. One of the players then used it to combine with a brain in a jar, giving her a second consciousness but afflicting her with faceblindness. 

Stars Without Number Alien Generator

Welcome to my first (only?) post. I always thought, "it sure would be cool to have a generator to make my own stupid alien species to play as in Stars Without Number or whatever." Unfortunately, all I could find was people's well-thought-out, deliberately designed aliens. To that end, I present to you: MY STARS WITHOUT NUMBER STUPID ALIEN RACE GENERATOR.

Here's how it works. Just roll once on the "base species" table for a starting inspiration. You don't have to literally make your alien that animal, but it can be inspired by it- like if I got "a bear" I could start with Chewbacca rather than "Space Bear." Probably you should assume everything is bipedal at first, but hey it's your alien. Then roll twice on the "traits" table to make your creature a little weirder and more alien. Finally, roll twice on the "abilities" table. Your two abilities together make up your starting foci. As an optional last step, roll on the "lenses" table in the SWN book to get an idea of what your alien's society is like. Finally, combine all of these to get a somewhat-coherent and very unique alien species. Several entries here (and the idea to do this in general) were inspired by Moonhop.

Optionally, you could also roll a 1d6 for each alien race to grant a +1 modifier to one stat, and one stat to get a -1 modifier to. This would more closely mimic the usual dynamic in sci-fi where some races are just "strong" and some are "smart." You could also roll 1d40 (a d4 and a d10) for one or both rolls on the special abilities table to only get stat bonuses, attack bonuses, and starting skills. As fun as it is to get weird powers, an alien race with the abilities "Intelligent and good at healing" is certainly easier to find a place for in the galaxy than "Secretes rope and talks to ghosts."

Here are five examples I generated on the spot, then tried to elaborate on slightly (names stolen from here, who stole them from a neural net.
1. You are a Rogotaud. You have the appearance of a large vegetable with tentacle-like roots coming out of the top. You have cybernetic limbs allowing you to walk around and manipulate objects in a surprisingly agile manner. The Rogotaudare known throughout the galaxy for two things: Their advanced healing techniques, and their utter cowardice in the face of any danger.
2. You are a Tabra. The Tabra are a race of wealthy aliens; although they are supremely intelligent they are mostly focused around finding new and exciting foods to devour, and to this end have jaws capable of completely unhinging to allow them to swallow entire animals at once. They look like slugs with long, elephantine trunks and a small pair of horns on their head.
3. You are a Tolemenaster. The Tolemenaster are composed of a goat-like alien and a symbiotic moss covering them that allows them to telepathically communicate with each other. They form a hive mind in the service of great mother trees that exists on their home planet. They have an extremely flexible, boneless body and can squeeze into incredibly small spaces.
4. You are a Blucket. The Blucket are a race dispersed from their home planet, and now travel across the galaxy. They are resilient, with the ability to regrow limbs and regenerate quickly, and they can climb, swim, and jump far better than humans. They each have six arms and have mantis-like insectoid faces. Also you smell absolutely awful so good luck.
5. You are a Lastibal. The Lastibal have bumpy, starfish-like heads with no eyes, and an eternally burning flame at the top. They have an extremely hot temperature, and by touching metal they can cause it to become red-hot. They are naturally good at manipulating other species, but unbeknownst to everyone but themselves they absolutely loathe all alien life, and their goal is to annihilate everyone but themselves.

1d100 BASE INSPIRATION
d10	d10	Species
0	HUMANLIKE
	0	Regular looking human
	1	Red-skinned Humanoid
	2	Yellow-skinned Humanoid
	3	Green-skinned Humanoid
	4	Blue-skinned Humanoid
	5	Purple-skinned Humanoid
	6	Gray-skinned Humanoid
	7	Clear-Skinned humanoid
	8	Normal skin-tone, weird forehead
	9	Normal skin-tone, tentacles for hair
1	MAMMALIAN
	0	Armadillo
	1	Bat
	2	Bear
	3	Camel
	4	Feline
	5	Deer
	6	Canine
	7	Elephant
	8	Giraffe
	9	Hippo
2	MAMMALIAN 2
	0	Horse
	1	Kangaroo
	2	Koala
	3	Mole
	4	Walrus
	5	Primate
	6	Rodent
	7	Sheep/Goat
	8	Weasel
	9	Whale
3	REPTILIAN
	0	Snake
	1	Iguana
	2	Chameleon
	3	Lizard
	4	Alligator
	5	Turtle
	6	Tyrannosaurus
	7	Stegosaurus
	8	Triceratops
	9	Pterodactyl
4	AVIAN
	0	Owl
	1	Parrot
	2	Pigeon
	3	Crow
	4	Duck
	5	Hawk
	6	Kiwi
	7	Ratite (Ostrich/Emu)
	8	Hummingbird
	9	Vulture
5	ARTHROPOID
	0	Spider
	1	Crab
	2	Ant
	3	Wasp/Bee
	4	Butterfly
	5	Fly
	6	Beetle
	7	Praying Mantis
	8	Mosquito
	9	Dragonfly
6	AMPHIBIAN/FISHLIKE
	0	Frog
	1	Salamander
	2	Hammerheak Shark
	3	Hagfish
	4	Shark
	5	Manta Ray
	6	Piranha
	7	Anglerfish
	8	Eel
	9	Tuna
7	MISC. ANIMALS
	0	Octopus
	1	Squid
	2	Slug
	3	Shrimp
	4	Earthworm
	5	Clam
	6	Barnacle
	7	Starfish
	8	Coral
	9	Jellyfish
8	PLANTOID
	0	Flower
	1	Flytrap
	2	Pitcher Plant
	3	Vegetable/Fruit
	4	Leafless Tree
	5	Leafy Tree
	6	Pine Tree
	7	Fern
	8	Cactus
	9	Vine
9	FUNGOID/EXOTIC
	0	Mushroom Cap
	1	Puffball Fungus
	2	Morel
	3	Stinkhorn Fungus
	4	Jelly Fungi
	5	Mold
	6	Rocklike Being
	7	Entirely gaseous
	8	Gas-Sacks
	9	Amorphous Blob Thing

1d100 TRAITS (roll 2)
d10	d10	Trait
0	EYES
	0	Compound eyes
	1	Giant pale eyes
	2	At the end of eyestalks
	3	Swivel-y, like a chameleon
	4	Just one giant cyclops eye
	5	Multiple pupils per socket
	6	Extra eye
	7	Extra 1d4 pairs of eyes
	8	Weird-shaped pupils
	9	No eyes
1	MOUTH
	0	Ant-like chewing mandibles
	1	Mosquito-like blood-sucking proboscis
	2	Lamprey-like jawless toothy mouth
	3	Extra 1d3 mouths
	4	Abnormally long tongue
	5	Hiant shark teeth
	6	Tentacle-y zoidberg mouth
	7	Extendable mouth, like in Alien
	8	Beak
	9	Lipless mouth
2	SKIN 2
	0	Red
	1	Blue
	2	Green
	3	Yellow
	4	Gray
	5	Transparent, visible skeleton
	6	Slimy and shiny, like a frog
	7	Cool patterned two-color skin
	8	Rocky, craggy skin
	9	Super wrinkly
3	LIMBS
	0	One super long finger on each hand
	1	Hooved feet
	2	Bird-talon feet
	3	Legless; snake-like tail
	4	Legless, slug-like foot
	5	Really long legs
	6	Extra pair of arms
	7	Extra pair of legs
	8	Single arm
	9	Single leg
4	LIMBS 2
	0	2d4 pairs of limbs
	1	Membranous wings (like a bat) - may gain "flight" as one of your abilities
	2	Feathery wings (like a bird) - may gain "flight" as one of your abilities
	3	Dragonfly wings - - may gain "flight" as one of your abilities
	4	Butterfly wings - - may gain "flight" as one of your abilities
	5	Roll around on wheels instead of feet - may gain "Fast" as one of your abilities
	6	2d10 tentacles in addition to/instead of limbs
	7	One arm is a big, crushing crab claw - may gain "Natural Weapon" as one of your abilities
	8	Sharp claws - may gain "Natural Weapon" as one of your abilities
	9	Tentacles for arms
5	BODY
	0	Covered in shaggy fur
	1	Covered in spikes
	2	Porcupine quills
	3	Radially symmetric, 5 ways- you have 5 of everything instead of pairs, equally distributed around your body in a circle
	4	Incredibly small (under 1 meter). Gain +1 DEX, -1 STR mods
	5	Incredibly large (over 2.5 meters). Gain +1 STR, -1 DEX mods
	6	Covered in brightly-colored feathers
	7	Constantly oozing slime
	8	Hunched-over posture
	9	Incredibly thin, skin clinging to bones
6	HEAD
	0	Membranous neck-frill
	1	Extra head
	2	Extra 1d4 heads
	3	Anglerfish-like lure
	4	Abnormally long neck
	5	Antlers - may gain "Natural Weapon" as one of your abilities
	6	Antennae
	7	Bull horns - may gain "Natural Weapon" as one of your abilities
	8	Sheep horns - may gain "Natural Weapon" as one of your abilities
	9	Human-like hair
7	HEAD 2
	0	Tentacles for hair
	1	Long beak-y nose
	2	Elephant trunk
	3	Big pointy ears
	4	Droopy rabbit ears
	5	Slits for nose
	6	No nose
	7	Enormous underbite
	8	Enormous overbite
	9	Long unicorn horn
8	MISCELLANOUS
	0	Some part of you (blood/fruit) is a powerful drug or poison
	1	Your flesh is made of a valuable commodity (gold/uranium/something) and everyone wants to kill you to get them
	2	You communicate through flashing different colors
	3	You can emit a noxious scent
	4	You have a prehensile tail that you can use to manipulate objects
	5	Part of you is on fire all the time
	6	You have a scary decoy face
	7	Actually a mindless animal piloted by a parasitic mushroom on its head
	8	Symbiotic relationship with a plant (maybe a moss) on your body
	9	You have a tiny animal (either a tiny mouse or a swarm of bugs) that lives on/in your body
9	MISC 2
	0	You are a swarm/colonial entity made up of smaller creatures
	1	You have a really sexy mustache
	2	Partially cybernetic
	3	You wear a Jawa-like cloak with only eyes visible
	4	You wear a weird creepy mask all the time
	5	Long tail with an Anklyosaurus club on it
	6	Two necks, both connect to your head (like Mewtwo)
	7	Snail-like feelers on your face.
	8	You reproduce asexually by budding. It takes a week's rations worth of energy to do so.
	9	You are constantly shifting. Reroll on this table once per day to get a new trait.

1d100 SPECIAL ABILITIES (roll 2x)
d10	d10	Ability
0	STATS
	0-2	+1 Strength Modifier
	3-5	+1 Dexterity Modifier
	6-8	+1 Constitution Modifier
	9	Aptitude for Violence: +1 to Attack Bonus
1	STATS 2
	0-2	+1 Intelligence Modifier
	3-5	+1 Wisdom Modifier
	6-8	+1 Charisma Modifier
	9	Aptitude for Violence: +1 to Attack Bonus
2	SKILLS 1
	0	Gain "Administer" as an origin skill
	1	Gain "Connect" as an origin skill
	2	Gain "Exert" as an origin skill
	3	Gain "Fix" as an origin skill
	4	Gain "Heal" as an origin skill
	5	Gain "Know" as an origin skill
	6	Gain "Lead" as an origin skill
	7	Gain "Notice" as an origin skill
	8	Gain "Perform" as an origin skill
	9	Gain "Pilot" as an origin skill
2	SKILLS 2
	0	Gain "Program" as an origin skill
	1	Gain "Punch" as an origin skill
	2	Gain "Shoot" as an origin skill
	3	Gain "Sneak" as an origin skill
	4	Gain "Stab" as an origin skill
	5	Gain "Survive" as an origin skill
	6	Gain "Talk" as an origin skill
	7	Gain "Trade" as an origin skill
	8	Gain "Work" as an origin skill
	9	Gain any combat skill as an origin skill
4	Combat
	0	Natural Fighters: Gain a +1 to normal attack bonus
	1	Armored Hide: Base Armor class of 15
	2	Metallic Skin: Base Armor class of 15
	3	Giant Shell: Base Armor class of 15
	4	Rocklike Hide: First hit die is always treated as full value (as "tough" ability in SWN)
	5	Resilient: First hit die is always treated as full value (as "tough" ability in SWN)
	6	Redundant Organs: First hit die is always treated as full value (as "tough" ability in SWN)
	7	Ferocious: Even if dropped to zero Hit Points, you can remain active, and can stay alive for ten more rounds instead of 6. You will still die instantly if you take any further damage, however.
	8	Shrink: As a main action you can shrink, reducing your overall size by 2/3rds. While shrunken you get a +1 to your dexterity mod and a -1 to your strength mod. You can return to normal size as a main action.
	9	Growth: As a main action, you can grow in size, increasing your size by 50%. This grants you a +1 to your strength mod and a -1 to your dexterity mod. Spend a main action to shrink back down.
5	SENSES/LOCOMOTION
	0	Electroreception: Sense electrical signals (including living creatures) within 20 meters
	1	Magnetoreception: You can sense metal shapes within 5 meters. You are also slightly magnetic, and metal objects can stick to you like a fridge magnet.
	2	Infravision: You can see heat, which can be used to sense living creatures within 20 meters
	3	Super Hearing: Can hear 4x as well as a human, granting +2 on notice checks.
	4	Super Sight: Can see 4x as well as a human, granting +2 on notice checks.
	5	Super Smell: Can smell 4x as well as a human, granting +2 on notice checks.
	6	Burrowing: You can burrow through earth or rubble. In Earth you can dig a human-sized hole 1 meter deep in one minute.
	7	Flight: You can fly at 5 meters per move action.
	8	Swimming: You can swim at 10 meters per move action and breathe underwater/hold breath while underwater.
	9	Jumping: You can jump 10 meters in the air.
6	PSIONICS
	0	Healer: You can use Psychic Succor and get an effort point as the level 0 Biopsionic power (you are treated as having biopsionic-0, but can only improve this skill if you take a psychic class).
	1	Psychoreception: You can detect psychic powers and get +2 vs psychic powers, as the level 0 Metapsionics power (you are treated as having metapsionic-0, but can only improve this skill if you take a psychic class).
	2	Augury: You can use oracle and get an effort point, as the level 0 Precognition power (you are treated as having precognition-0, but can only improve this skill if you take a psychic class).
	3	Telekinesis: You can use Telekinetic Manipulation and get an effort point, as the telekinesis level 0 power (you are treated as having telekinesis-0, but can only improve this skill if you take a psychic class).
	4	Telepathy: You can use telepathic contact and get an effort point, as the telepathy level 0 power (you are treated as having telepathy-0, but can only improve this skill if you take a psychic class)
	5	Teleportation: You can use personal apportation and get an effort point, as the teleportation level 0 power (you are treated as having teleportation-0, but can only improve this skill if you take a psychic class)
	6	Sense the Need: You can use personal apportation and get an effort point, as the teleportation level 0 power (you are treated as having teleportation-0, but can only improve this skill if you take a psychic class)
	7	Terminal Reflection: You can use Terminal Reflection and get an effort point, as the precognition level 1 power (If you take a psychic class and gain the precognition skill at level 0, you may improve it freely to level 1)
	8	Life Transfer: You can transfer your HP to another by touch; sacrifice 2 HP to heal them by 1. This does not count as a psychic skill.
	9	Shapeshifting: You can shapeshift into any form, as the biopsionic Metamorph power. This does not count as a psychic skill.
7	BIOLOGICAL ODDITIES
	0	Clinging: You can cling to walls like a gecko. This allows you to "walk" across any vertical surface capable of supporting your weight.
	1	Feign Death: You can very convincingly play dead- you stop moving and vital signs stop.
	2	Righting Reflex: You can survive a fall from any height; if the total damage for the fall is less than your current HP you are fine, otherwise you land on your feet but are stunned and can take no actions for (fall damage / current HP) rounds.
	3	Fast: You run extremely fast. You run at 20 meters per round instead of 10.
	4	Oil Secretion: You constantly secrete a lubricating oil. It makes you hard to grab, and lets you slip out of small spaces.
	5	Extremophile: You are able to survive in the cold of space, or in extremely hot or cold environments.
	6	Photosynthesis: You can survive without eating, needing only an hour of sunlight a day. You can store sunlight for up to a week (you can still eat to survive normally)
	7	Mimicry: You can perfectly repeat any sound you have heard, like a parrot.
	8	Natural Weapon: You have a natural weapon (sharp claws, teeth, a stinging tail). They deal 1d10 + punch skill damage, and have Shock damage 2/13.
	9	Spit Acid: You can spit acid, which deals 3d4 + shoot skill damage. Range of 10/30
8	BIOLOGICAL ODDITIES 2
	0	Bloodlust: Anytime you kill a creature in combat you get a free attack.
	1	Widespread: Your species is wide-spread and loyal to each other. Anywhere you go that is inhabited and not-entirely-hostile, you can find other members of your species who will be willing to do a mild favor for you. You can call in one favor per day.
	2	Sneaky: You can use the "fighting withdrawal" action as an instant action, meaning you can always freely disengage from enemies without giving them a free melee attack.
	3	Squeeze: You can squeeze through any space 20 cm/8" wide
	4	Camouflage: You can change colors at-will. You can use this as camouflage to get +2 to sneak if you're naked.
	5	Regeneration: You can regrow any lost limbs, and heal 1 hit point per hour instead of per day.
	6	Acidic blood. Anything that causes you to bleed must save vs 1d6 acid damage as your blood splashes on them
	7	Sticky Tongue: You have a long, sticky tongue that can pick up objects or attempt to grab foes within 7 meters.
	8	Unhinged Jaw: Your jaw can unhinge to swallow anything your size or smaller and store it in your stomach like a boa constrictor.
	9	Webbing: You can secrete 10 meters of sticky web per day, it can be used as rope and is slightly sticky like a spiderweb.
9	WEIRD
	0	Necromancy: You an talk to ghosts of recently-deceased creatures (within the past week). Doing this causes one point of system shock.
	1	Heat Metal: You can heat metal with your touch. It takes 1d4 rounds, after which anything touching it takes 1d4 damage.
	2	Lucky: Once per day you can reroll a single d20 or 2d6 roll.
	3	Heat Metal: You can heat metal with your touch. It takes 1d4 rounds, after which anything touching it takes 1d4 damage.
	4	Spark: You can summon a flame the size of a candle on the tip of one of your fingers, and are immune to fire.
	5	Plant Growth: You can cause plants to grow at your touch, even dead ones.
	6	Animal Empathy: You can touch an animal to establish telepathic contact with it, during which you can communicate basic thoughts with it. Animals are still animal-level intelligence, and may not be that useful.
	7	Hivemind: You form a hive mind with others of your species. You can automatically know the thoughts of any others of your species within 100 kilometers, and they can know yours. This only works while you are awake.
	8	Always Aware: You are never surprised in combat.
	9	Minor Time Travel: You can rewind time by ten minutes. Once used, you can never use this power again ever. If time travel is common in your game you might let this power be used 1/day for 1 minute instead.