Two Things I Stole from Someone Else (for use in (O)D&D)

Hi, My Name is Bert the Purple Worm

The OD&D reaction roll is a 2d6, with 2-5 being negative, 6-8 uncertain and 9-12 positive. That works fine a lot of the time but then sometimes you need more information or it's just preferable to not have to think of a new way for a Gnoll to be uncertain. B/X crams additional outcomes into the role based on the rolled value but it's still not always immediately clear to me how this Gnoll reacts. Which is to say that I'm not great at spur-of-the-moment characterization.

New Rule: Designate one of the reaction roll's 2d6 "dark" and the other “light” (obviously easiest if you've got a dark and a light die, but whatever). Use the color of the higher die to determine the creature's behavior in greater detail: "dark," denotes craftiness, calculation, stalking, underhanded behavior, subterfuge while, "light," denotes forthrightness and direct action. 

Light reactions pretty clearly telegraph intent to the party: the monster is clearly unhappy with you, or its not sure or its indifferent or maybe even gestures to you for help or in some friendly greeting. The Players, of course, can still read the monster wrong.

Intelligent, calculating, outnumbered or predatory monsters are more likely to act with caution/avoid telegraphing intent so ties break “dark” for more intelligent, calculating, outnumbered or predatory creatures (if you want an editable chart listing OD&D monsterintelligence, behavior, etc., see here).

For reference, here are the results of a very simple sort and copy/paste using the linked chart.*

More Intelligent, Calculating, or Predatory Monsters

Basilisks, Chimeras, Dragons, Gargoyles, Giants, Gnolls, Goblins, Hydras, Kobolds, Medusae, Men (Bandits, Buccaneers & Nomads), Minotaurs, Ogres, Purple Worms, Sea Monsters, Trolls, Unicorns, Vampires, Weretigers, Werewolves, Wyverns

Or, if you're working with the encounter type tables on pages 17 and 18 of Volume 3 and want to do this more simply: All Dragons (less the Cockatrice), All Chaotic Giants, All odd results on the Lycanthrope table, plus Unicorns, Gargoyles, Vampires and Purple Worms (standard or marine variant). Trim to suit.

Really, though, it ought to be pretty intuitive what constitutes a more intelligent, calculating or predatory monster.

Examples of Dark Reactions by broad type

More Intelligent creatures will act as calculating, but may also use the first opportunity to alert others or try to manipulate the party for creature's own gain (EX: Dragons, Unicorns)

Calculating creatures will try to assess party strengths and weaknesses, may use poison or drugs, may lead them into traps (EX: Giants)

Predatory creatures may slink away to stalk the party or assess strengths and weaknesses (EX: Chimerae, Goblins, Werewolves)

Domesticated creatures that don't ape predatory behaviors (like a hunting animal might) - ignore Dark reactions

Motifs/Landmarks/Asks

This is a tool to help Players remind GMs things they liked/were interested in seeing more of and GMs remember those things (I sometimes fail to communicate properly with my GMs and I know I've forgotten, misplaced and mis-remembered things Players wanted to see more of).

At the start of the first session, the GM hands out index cards to the Players, one for every three players (round up, so four Players get two cards). On the cards is the word “Motif” and three bullet points. During play, each Player writes down something “in the fiction” of which they'd like to see more and initials this note. Each player can contribute one thing to a card unless numbers dictate that a Player must contribute twice to fill in all three bullets. At the end of the second session, if not earlier, all cards should be handed back to the GM.

The GM endeavors to include the three motifs in an upcoming dungeon, hex or other major location/landmark. Once done, the GM hands the Players a new card.

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*Sort by the Behavior and Organization columns. I organized each of these columns intentionally, in an order I consider more important when creating encounters and running monsters (intelligence → hunting behavior → general disposition → lairing behavior → social structure, if any, etc).

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+Epidiah Ravachol's Swords without Master does this thing where you roll 2d6, and the higher of the two rolls dictates the "tone" of the scene or next bit of the scene or whatever. I stole this from that. Motifs are used there to determine the pacing and end of the story/adventure. Here, they're much closer to an on-the-fly generator for what Necropraxis calls, "landmarks".

Randomized Fighters for hacked B/X

Fighter

Fighter class for hacked B/X and Trollworld

Threat Die roll a d8 for damage and Endurance after creation

Saves on a 16+

Adventurer can wear any mundane armor and use any mundane weapon without penalty

Average Learner gains a new level every 2,000 XP

Guts & Glory (see below)

Multiclass at level up can roll two times, split between any advancement tables for classes which you've currently unlocked

Locked subclasses/variants includes the Hime and Archer.

at creation

roll a d6, d8, d10 and d12 and see A. B. C. and D. below

A. the d6 determines your Glory. Write down this number. Whenever you fail a Guts save (see below), add this to your current Endurance. If it's above your current max, it's added as temporary Endurance. If you are unconscious due to lack of Endurance and this increases your total Endurance past 0, then you can get up.

B. one roll is your starting Endurance (pick from the three rolls and discard that die; you can also discard the highest roll and take a “six” as your starting Endurance)

C. one roll determines your Guts(or just pick and discard the lowest die roll)

You've been scarred somewhere. This roll determines where/what the scar looks like. 1/session, you can re-roll a failed Save v Death or Poisons (choose which).

D. one roll determines Might Feat (or just pick and discard the highest die roll)

Scars (Guts)
1	Poorly healed broken bone gives you an ugly, lumpy forearm or leg	7	Lips all scarred and raggedy
2	Missing d6 teeth in obvious places	8	Nose broken a few times
3	Half-blind in one eye, missing corresponding eyebrow	9	Ritual scarification on neck
4	Cheshire Grin	10	Missing middle finger
5	Missing part of nose	11	Cool scar, across nose and cheeks, under eyes
6	Missing ear	12	Cool scar down side of face, over eye (gap in eyebrow)

Mighty Feats (all 1/session unless otherwise noted)
1	Rise Again. the round after you've been killed, and so long as your body is in OK shape, you crawl back from oblivion with 1 Endurance and 1 Wound.	7	Leap. 1/ combat, leap up to your thrown weapon range as your move action. This will likely surprise your enemies.
2	Revenge. when a creature damages you, you get a free attack against a nearby enemy or target immediately following the attack (interrupts everything else)	8	Lean In. You can throw your shoulder into it and bash down and otherwise locked or stuck door, can push something extremely heavy (moving as if encumbered) or can pry open a locked chest (likely sets off any traps) without making a check or save.
3	Rampage. After killing something, get a free strike against another nearby enemy or target immediately following your killing blow at -2 attacks. (Can be done more than once, the penalty is cumulative on successive rampage strikes).	9	Mighty Throw. 1/ combat you can throw something enormous (something you couldn't necessarily lift otherwise) at a target, dealing an extra die of damage (at least - if it's huge and the target is tiny, may kill it outright)
4	Furious Choke. On an attack, you can try and single-mindedly choke something with a neck (neck must be small enough you can actually choke). Doesn't impair your defense or saves. Forces the victim to make saves each round or the victim passes out. A really bad roll on the save means they've choked to death or you snapped their spine or ruined their windpipe and they're dead.	10	Flesh Wound. you can ignore the mechanical effect of a Wound. You've still suffered the physical damage and will have scars but you don't die automatically if you take a second one, etc.
5	Double Fisted. Attack with two weapons at once (can use fist, shield). Roll both attacks. If either succeeds, roll an extra TD for damage. If either is a critical success, target is killed outright. If either is a critical failure, it counts as two critical failures.	11	Weapon Nut. After a Turn of practice you can make a check to figure out how to use any weird, strange weapon without penalty. Can also be used to make kludge repairs to weapons in lieu of doing so in camp or to jury rig some weird new weapon (sword on the end of a whip).
6	Sword Swallower. You can keep an extra weapon, rapier, whip or something similar shaped, in your gut. Avoid strong magnets and try to sit down gently. (takes d3 rounds do draw and sheathe, but not session limit)	12	Armor Nut. After a Turn of inspection/trying on armor, you can make a check to figure out how to use any weird, strange armor without penalty. Can also be used to make kludge repairs to armor in lieu of doing so in camp or to jury rig some weird new armor or armor-like device (shield from giant turtle shell). Or pick 12.

Fighter Advancement
roll	advancement
01-20	+1 Attacks
21-40	+1 Saves
41-60	+1 TD Endurance
61-65	Tough as Fuck. +1 Defense. Re-roll: increase bonus by 1, max +4.
66-70	Glorious. Gain Guts. If already had, gain Glory (roll d6 for starting glory). If already had, can choose another category of Saves to which Guts applies and get 1/session or increase current uses of a Guts Save by 2 (max 3). Can gain bonus of 2 to any maxed out Guts Save (bonus applies only to re-roll). Whenever you roll this, you can also choose to re-roll your Glory using your current TD – keep the roll if larger. Or re-roll if you've rolled this at least once before.
71-75	Gutsy Bastard. Gain Guts. If already had, gain Glory (roll d6 for starting glory). Afterward, whenever you fail a Guts Save, you can choose to split your Glory between your next attack and damage rolls (next round only) instead of increasing your Endurance. Adds an additional +1 to damage or attack rolls on a re-roll, with the current maximum being your current bonus to attacks for the one and the highest possible roll on your TD for the other, after that, re-roll.
76-80	Triage. You're well versed enough in anatomy that you can help anyone performing field medicine in lieu of attacking this round. Add +1 to the victims Save. On a re-roll, increase bonus by 1 (max 4). Can also be used to try to diagnose diseases common to soldiering, whoring or the like.
81-85	Scavenger. +2 when hunting through a battlefield for cool kit or necessary supplies OR when scrounging around the wilderness for food. On a Re-roll, increase by 1 or choose alternate ability. Max bonuses for each is equal to your Glory. After max, re-roll.
86-90	Battlefield Presence. You can rally one allied NPC that just failed their Morale check (they re-roll at +2 or so) OR you can force an NPC to make a Morale check, if possible (describe how). On a re-roll choose alternate ability and then, on subsequent re-rolls increase the bonus/penalty by one to a max of +3/-2. Afterward, re-roll.
91-93	Henchmen. Next time you're in town you get a free NPC tag-along. d12 determines nature of NPC: 1-3 urchin linkboy with a lantern and dagger, 4-5 squire of dubious heritage with sham livery, d4 large coin, adventuring gear and short sword, 6-7 Street Thug with club and 4 throwing knives and underworld connections, 8-9 psychopath with too many daggers and weird trinkets, 10 mutant with (pick: acid spit, third eye [all around vision for 60'] or tentacle arms [can bear hug as a bear]), 11 hime (she thinks you're her knight/manservant), 12 level 1 Rogue (treat as a regular Henchman) with outstanding obligations (Han Solo and all that). Like other Henchmen, takes half a share of XP but only gains a level at half rate.
94	Weaponmaster. Choose a weapon keyword. When using a weapon with that keyword, roll a d4 and apply that as a bonus to either attacks or damage (choose before either roll). On a re-roll, increase the die by one size, up to d20. Can choose for multiple keywords on a re-roll, but take only the highest bonus die.
95	Bulk Up. If your TD is a d8, increase your size to Large, if it's at least a d10, increase it to Huge (max Huge/d10). If it's too low, re-roll on this table. After the max, re-roll.
96	Impressive/Terrifying Physique. Outside of combat, leverage your body when interacting with others. Add your a die three sizes smaller than your TD to your charisma when interacting with NPCs. On a re-roll, increase the die size (max your current TD). After the max, re-roll.
97	Blood in your eyes. 1/encounter, when bloodied, restore your Endurance to full or blind a nearby creature by whipping blood in their eyes. On a re-roll, increase number of uses (max 2) and number blinded (from 1 to d4+1, to d6+1). After, re-roll.
98	In Good Shape. 1/encounter, gain a free movement action.
99	Shake it Off. Cumulative +2 Save v Mind-Controlling or movement impairing effects, cumulative, up to +8, after which, re-roll.
00	Feats. Roll a d12 and take this feat (if you re-roll an already earned feat, re-roll this advancement roll).
*You can swap out any advancement for +1 TD Endurance and any roll 81+ for +1 Attacks or Saves or TD Endurance *FIGHTERS ONLY: You can swap out both rolls and, as long as one is 81+, earn all three bonuses.

attributions: Yong-Sik Jung, , Jake Wyatt, portrait of Yukio Mishima (can't find photog credits), Heon-Hwa Choe.

It is hard to find cool pictures of Pokemon

Troll Master

This, but slowly rotting

Gotta catch 'em all (another Trollworld Class)

Threat Die roll a d4 for damage and Endurance after creation

Saves on a 16+

Mostly just a civilian can wear any mundane light armor and use any mundane simple melee weapon without penalty in human form

It Ain't Hard gains a new level every 1,250 XP

Summon Deck (see below advancement chart and starting stuff)

Summoner You can have 3 summons on your Deck at a time. Summoning requires detaching the Guro-Ball, throwing it at the desired area. The Summon can act your next round in lieu of one of your actions (you have to order the summon what to do, it has to be able to hear you or else they just stand around, looking bored and slowly decomposing).

Not Too Bad at level up can roll two times, split between the Troll Master and Rogue advancement tables

I Got You Trollkachoo +2 to all Saves for you and Summon while the Summon is out and conscious

Locked you need to earn Professor Guro's trust or steal and figure out how to use a Summon Deck before you can use.

at creation

roll a d4, d6 and d8 and see A. and B. below

A. one roll is your starting Endurance (pick from the three rolls and discard that die)

B. two rolls determine your Starting Summon and its ability (attribute the two remaining rolls to the Starting Summon & Ability table)

The Summon Deck is a piece of electronics about the size of a loaf of bread. It clips to a belt, could be carried in a purse or bag or strapped to the side of a backpack. On it are three Guro-Balls, Troll containment Devices.

Some Stuff: Guro-Balls are crazy expensive as Prof. Guro stopped making them in favor of the Trollomancer Program, and each can only hold 1 Summon. Decks can normally only hold 3 Guro-Balls. To capture a Troll, throw a Guro-Ball at its feat. If the Troll has less than ¼ of its Endurance left, it may be weak enough to be trapped in the ball, roll a d20 over its remaining Endurance. If you succeed, it's trapped, if not, it failed and your ball has to be retrieved and reset (resetting doesn't use up an action, though). Summons are digitized and their minds broken by the Summon Deck, they become your obedient servants – because they're Undead now, they take extra damage from holy stuff (or however Undead work in your game) and only make Bravery/Morale checks if your level is lower than theirs (and then they make it as normal and when summoned and at a penalty equal to the disparity between your level and their HD). Treat your Summons as henchmen as far as XP goes – split it evenly but they only earn half of their split. On level up, they can do one of their abilities again or pick up/improve their alternate ability. They use a d6 as a TD, your bonus to Attacks and Saves unless otherwise mentioned (captured Summons use whatever TD they would have used in life). Summons heal while resting in their deck for about 8 hours.

Starting Summon and its ability
roll	Summon	Ability (choose one)
1	Spider Guy	1/session web or Surprises on a 4 in 6
2	Flower Fairy	1/session cure light wounds or light
3	Rock Lobster	1/session can “hide” in stone for up to a turn by using a full round to burrow into surrounding rock or can pin an enemy to the ground on a failed Save v Stone w/a bonus of 2 for each size increment greater than small
4	Giant Centipede	1/session they can deliver a poisonous bite, Save v Stone or paralyzed for d4 rounds or they can hide in moist ground, surprising on a 4 in 6
5	Two-tailed Ferret	1/session can create an illusory clone of itself (deals no damage and disappears when struck) or find secret doors in a 4 in 6 when it spends a turn looking
6	Smog Raven	Flies, d4 TD, 1/session exude a horrid cloud roughly 5'x5', causing anyone within to Save v Choking or spend d6 rounds incapacitating, gasping OR can cause darkness in a 20'x20' area
7	Cokeboy	d8 TD, 1/session can ignite itself, dealing its TD to itself and anyone in melee range of it OR it spoil food and drink
8	Fire Goblin	d4 TD, 1/session can deal it's damage in a mini fireball (it takes half damage as the fireball involves throwing its essence at something) – as fireball but half damage and half sized OR1/session can ignore its TD in heat or electrical damage (both powers can't be used simultaneously – each takes a separate round of prep)

Troll Master Advancement
roll	advancement
01-20	+1 Attacks
21-50	+1 Saves
51-70	+1 TD
71-80	Mind of a Master. +1 to Cha checks when dealing with your Summons and other henchmen-types (not necessarily your henchmen), max +3, or re-roll on this table.
81-90	Nega-Deck. 1/session a Summons gain back d4 of their Endurance whenever they're returned to the deck (on a re-roll, increase the gain by one until the max possible roll equals the next largest die [ie, a d12+8->d20, a d4+2->d6]) or increase the # of uses or re-roll.
91-95	All God's Creatures. Watching your Summons decay in front of you has given you considerable anatomical knowledge, gain a bonus of 2 to a backstab-like attack or to any save/check involving surgery, first aid or triage on another living thing). +1 or pick the other version on a re-roll (max +4/+4)
96-97	Forceful. You only risk having a Summon “break” if your level is 2 below its HD (on a re-roll, increase by 1, max 4) or re-roll.
98-99	Good Teacher. Every other session, one of your used Summons gains the full amount of XP it leeched. Further rolls increases the number of Summons affected.
00	Extra Ball. You've jury-rigged your deck to take an extra Summon (max 2) or re-roll on this table.
You can swap out any advancement for +1 TD Endurance and any roll 91+ for +1 Attacks or Saves or TD Endurance

THAT'S TOTALLY A FANCY GURO-BALL IN HER HAND

Basic Character Creation

This is one of those things you put somewhere so you can reference it later. It's super rough, but what I've been working on in what little spare time I have.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gxpiidrtelqv452/QuNFSsDRPe/Character%20Creation.pdf

Most of character creation for ability-scoreless and funnel-esque Basic D&D.

Monsterparts (attribute-less D&D)

You are all children. No younger than 7, no older than 14. You live on the same block or nearby and you probably attend the same school. Something is wrong and only children and animals can see it.

The night is longer than it ought to be, the temperature drops and there are wolves bigger than cars in the streets. At night, the shutters clap against the house, brushed aside by the enormous grey-black, craggy knuckles of a vast and careless hand, the sidewalk is wet with ropey drool. "Always so rainy," the adults say, as the step over the puddles.

Something goes from house to house, tapping at the windows. It has large reflective eyes, like an owl. The adults do not see and they do not understand why they must not open the windows. Next door, they are all different. They are cold and you saw one killing a squirrel while its parents watched. Next door, all the windows are always open.

Childhood rhymes hold new secrets, open doors. Crouch down in hiding places and the branches grow wide and long, the bush becomes a knot of trunks, the trunks roads and everywhere they go strange and terrible, full of knights dead in their armour and beautiful women in beautiful dresses covering spider legs and they will try to drown you in a vat full of other small, floating bodies or wear you like earings or walk you like a dog.

There are signs and symbols. A threadbare shirt worn by your grandfather, a riddle in Latin, a saying in Greek. The broach in your mother's sock drawer. You present them against the dark and the worst things to turn them aside for a time.

And still things change. The world grows dark and shadows lengthen, take on new forms. From the trunks of passing cars, voices call your name. Under the floorboards, scratches. Things want to be let out, they want to be let in and they are always hungry, curious, violent, terrible.

Characters
Roll d8+6. This is your age.

Choose a character class/type: there are Tough, Studious and Truant.

Tough characters have 6 Endurance Points. 0 Secrets. Damage die: d6. Starting stuff: clothes, 2 other things.

Studious characters have 4 Endurance Points. 1 Secret. Damage die: d4. Starting stuff: clothes, books, notebooks, 2 other things.

Truant characters have 5(4) Endurance Points. 2 Secrets. Damage die: d6. Starting stuff: clothes, cigarettes and/or a key to a safe place or one other thing.

Stuff
Jelly or Jam & Toast (heals EP when eaten at leasure)
Compass (works as normal, goes crazy around some bad things)
Vintage Nimrod Pipe Lighter w/ fluid
Whittling/carving knife
empty glass milk jug with twine around the neck for carrying
pet cricket, salamander or turtle
an old, tattered book of Latin verbs with your Father's name in the front cover
notebooks
old, reliable, favourite pen
a really good sweater
a really good scarf
a really good pair of shoes
galoshes
really sticky tape
a dusty plastic ink well full of holy water, stoppered
chalk
glasses frames
twine
10' rope
A long stick
your backpack
golf club
baseball bat
swiss army knife

Secrets/Rewards
Secrets are rumours you hear whispered during recess or things you see out your window at night, clutching bedsheets. They are strange facts you overhear recounted on the news or They are the things in your weird Aunt's basement and they are the reason it's spring and none of the trees have grown any leaves. None of the adults will believe you. You can only know one Secret before they start weighing on you. Every Secret known past the first does Endurance Points damage (ie, if you learn a second secret, subtract 1 from your EP). For each of these additional Secrets resolved, restore one to your EP. Truants start with 1 point of EP damage.

Every week in the game or so, you learn of a new secret.

Resolve Secrets
Resolving secrets is also something only you can do, so things will just get worse, more families going missing or strange, until you do something about them. If you don't do something about what's happening, you'll slowly fall into darkness, despair, anxiety.

Resolving secrets usually gets you some kind of in-game reward. At least one special thing each. You also get better at doing something tricky or you know something special or you've made some kind of connection with something special. Discuss with the GM and write it down on your character sheet.

Special Things
d4 uses each.
Box with the body of your cat/hamster. Hamster ghost can unlock doors or find secret places if you point it in the right direction. Cat can unlock doors or defend you against a single attack (takes the attack instead of you).

Urn of Great Aunt Edna. Held aloft, produces light as bright as the sun. All bad things are held in place for a turn.

Old Flute. When played, will open a door or lock one against any force.

Cape from the School Play. When worn, may hide you in shadows as if invisible.

Anything that is really good will keep you safe against something bad, but only that one time. Afterwards, it's just normal, whatever was special or awesome about it has been ruined or effaced by the bad things and dark places.

Safe Places
Your fort, your bed, your friend's house.

If you're here, you can't be got at by the bad things.

Endurance Points
Tick down 1/round while in bad places, being pursued by bad thing or in combat. At 0, you can no longer forestall any attacks and start taking wounds, are exhausted. You can take a single wound. A second and you're dead.

A Warm, Square Meal
Restores all EP to current max. You can choose to forget extra secrets and restore all EP lost that way too.

Some Secrets
1. The neighbours were meant to come back a week from now, but they showed up in the middle of the night. But where's their car? They also don't go to work or school, they just stand around, looking out the windows as their house gets dirtier and their clothes more filthy.

2. Mr. Jensen's been staring into space ever since that trip to the museum and they've taken his wife away. They say his house smells terrible, like rotten fish.

3. All the cats are missing and all the single women in town are carrying fashionable, fur-lined gloves. Do they all know?

4. All the dogs won't go near the principal's house. He's friendly enough but they say there isn't any furniture inside.

5. Paul's parents go every night to that old factory but we've not seen Paul in weeks. One of your parents were just invited to some club that meets at the factory...

6. Put your ear against a pipe to hear the next person to go missing. You can't quite make it out, but it sounds like the name of your little brother.

7. Mirrors are doors and they break the doors when they climb through them. There are broken mirrors everywhere...

8. There are two of Judy. The one the adults see and the one we see. Both are pale and so cold and falling apart. The one we see is begging for help but she can't do much because the other Judy has her all tied up.

9. So many people have a little worm sticking out of the back of their neck. Pull on it and the person dies. Everyone with the worm spends the night in graveyards or old cellars, stuffing dirt into their mouths.

10.  The giant animals that stalk the night are all going to one specific place in the woods that only exists at night. The floor rattles with human bones and a talking big with a crown of fire sits on a throne of thorns and bones.

11. There are weird lights out on the mountain. The dead are dancing and holding an enormous celebration. Terrible things happen when the party ends.

12. Every night, a horn sounds right outside your window. It used to be so loud that it shook the panes, but it's getting quieter and quieter. You can hear things outside, climbing the walls now too, they get closer and closer.

Imagines: Donn/John Kenn and Edward Gorey.

You will be wondering about that sugar bowl, I imagine

+Scrap Princess asked what these potions did and this was my answer. I guess it was well liked enough that I want to put it here so I don't forget about it & I've tweaked some of the original post.

THERE ARE FOUR KINDS OF POTION...

Each character consumes one of four potions. There are as many potions as there are characters. Nearby, you discover empty vials, some of which are broken, crushed. It's hard to guess how many others have consumed these potions.

...AND THEY WILL KILL YOU...

All potions are lethal after 48 hours, though this final affect can be delayed an additional 48 hours if you consume the liver of someone who has also consumed one of these four potions (any of the four will do).

...UNLESS YOU DRINK ONE OF EACH.

Consuming all four variety of potion (either directly or via liver) delays the final  affect indefinitely. "Special affects" of consumption fade, with weird after affects persisting. Information to this affect will be relayed to the characters by a talking fox with two tails and seven eyes once the last potion is drunk. Or maybe they just know it to be true. Or maybe some creepy consigliere types lets them in on the situation. Flavour to taste.

THE POTIONS

  i. Blue Moon Jelly This is an exceedingly rare deep-sea creature. Consuming the creature grants you a rubbery consistency (you can't wear armour or bear heavy loads but  you're immune to most bludgeoning damage). You are virtually immune to high-gravity affects and being above deep-sea pressure levels lets you leap incredible distances (like 50' horizontally and 30' vertically) by compressing your body and shooting away, like a spring. Your skin dries and cracks, longs for salt water and by the end of the second day you either die of dehydration or dissolve into sea water.

After affect: if this is the potion you first consumed and you manage to consume all other varieties before they kill you, you survive, but you are always cold, clammy, your hair hangs wet and you may add up to 10' to any distance you could otherwise jump and you take falling damage only after you've fallen 30' (ie, d6 for each ten after 30).

  ii. The Frog Your knees snap and your leg joints invert. Your jawline joins your shoulders as your neck vanishes and your mouth grows enormous. You can dance across water and tree tops if unencumbered and you can swallow whole things half your size. Eventually, your mind fails, grows strange, hateful as your organs de-acclimate to this environment and you die, hyperventilating, suffocating on now-poisonous air, longing for steaming green jungles of a planet far, far from here. 

After affect: if this is the potion you first consumed and you manage to consume all other varieties before they kill you, you survive, but you are never happy, always longing for a land you've never actually seen outside of dreams. Similarly stranded brothers and sisters will send you a map to a possible way home.

  iii. The Shrimp Your eyes bulge, extend on stalks and you have all-around vision and wide spectrum vision. Your skin hardens and becomes chitinous  You cannot wear armour but your skin counts as plate. You eat trash, smaller creatures, whatever you can find and you become strange, secretive. Eventually, your skin grows too heavy and gravity peels it from the flesh below, killing you in the process.

After affect: if this is the potion you first consumed and you manage to consume all other varieties before they kill you, you survive, but your skin is now translucent and your hair becomes a stiff and brittle mass, like coral. Your eyes remain larger-than normal and brilliantly-hued, and you retain wide-spectrum vision.

  iv. The Fish You bud scales, gills and you can see  and breathe underwater as on land. When under water, you can attack and evade by darting suddenly. Save v paralysis instead of rolling to hit or using your AC; attacks made in this way ignore armour and attacks avoided in this way deal no partial damage if missed and require no additional save for area/breath affect damage. Eventually, you can no longer breathe in water or land and die in a panic, asphyxiating, flopping.

After affect: if this is the potion you first consumed and you manage to consume all other varieties before they kill you, you survive, and you can breathe under water but you're totally hairless and you've got fluttering gills from the side of your face down to your nipples.

The Wild Hunt

You saw something you shouldn't have...

When your fever breaks, you find you've no job, barely any money - just weapons, gear, an address for the huntmaster's meeting, a pass sign for the meeting, a bit of food and this mask.

Choose a class (Fighter, Magic-User, Cleric, Thief) (or really, just be a Fighter or Magic-User), roll for mask, how you get to the meeting called by the huntmaster and then join the hunt.

The Masks (d12)
1.The Cock
Immune to sleep and charm.
2. The Crow
Eat the dead for sustenance and health.
3. The Fox
Flee pursuit; can hide in a 2' cube.
4. The Hound
Tireless pursuit of fleeing foes.
5. The Hippo
Swallow something your size whole.
6. The Hare
Burrow deep.
7. The Badger
Defend your allies long after others would have died.
8. The Owl
Never surprised.
9. The Owlbear
Deadly embrace.
10. The Wolf
You've got a vorpal knife.
11. The Heron
Handily navigate rough terrain.
12. The Bat
Can see in the dark.

How to get to the meeting? (d8)
1. Tavern under a bridge, blue lights, only ghosts come here anymore.
2. Room full of corpses, most of which looks just like the party. Close your eyes, whisper a childhood prayer and open one of several doors to get there.
3. Long-abandoned shrine. Offer a blooded sacrifice.
4. String up the outline of the door in the entrails of an innocent, a bully, a liar, a thief, a vagrant or a magic-user, and then step through.
5. Light a branch of a hazel tree and use it to burn a sprig of holly and a sprig of mint. Breath deep.
6. Eat the flesh of the plague-slain.
7. Douse your mask in arterial blood of a sentient creature.
8. Consume unclean meat.

The Huntmaster
Waits for you at the meeting; is someone you've never seen before but once you've met them you'll see them all the time, rummaging through garbage, dead in a gutter, arguing in a coffee shop, on a wanted poster, as a barkeep, as distant relative of the Empress.

In ceremonial garb, when leading a hunt or celebrating a glorious kill, the huntmaster appears differently:

A man or woman well-muscled, tattooed, nude but for the trophy heads it wears about its neck, wrists, shoulders and waist.

In the Spring, the heads are all alive and each knows a great secret (the name of the rock, where the last of the first dragon's slumbers, how to unwind time, etc, etc); the huntmaster's head is the head of an elk and it speaks thunderously, telepathically. It walks upon the ground barefoot and each footfall leaves behind cinnamon-scented ferns of curative potency.

In the Summer, the heads are dead and rotting. The huntmaster's head is that of an eyeless stag. The huntmaster rides a rotten, limping boar, wears a coat of feathers and hangs from its antlers the tongues and fingers of each sort of people in the race of man. Its touch brings pestilence, its mere presence sours food but it may also consume any disease, decay or rot, if it so desires.

In the Fall, the heads are mummified and the huntmaster's antlers are hung with glistening glass shards. The huntmaster's head will be a skeletal stag's head. The huntmaster will ride upon an enormous elk and be attended by two deaf mutes, each of which will bear a legendary weapon or armour on a silken pillow.

In the Winter, the huntmaster appears to be an emaciated human wearing a stag mask. It wears a cloak of quills and will speak as if human. It is born on a palanquin to its court by the Grugach and his son and two daughters. On the palanquin lays more wealth than any can imagine.

The Hunt is called to (d10)
1. Kill all of the royal line, their children, their bastards, their most distant relatives. Their power, secrets and treasure are yours.
2. Ruin the wealthy and raise up the poor, including yourself.
3. Empty the area of all human life so that something stranger can grow there. What takes root will call you an ally for long after your death.
4. Find a lost relic of the hunt (The huntmaster has lost its shield, the effaced Shield of Galahad, and its dagger, Carnwennan. Should the Shield be found and returned to the huntmaster, the wild creatures of the wood will rise up on two legs, speak as man and overthrow all his works. Should the dagger by found and returned, a great, tangled highway will appear and run through each city and town; the highway will lead back to the fairy court and other, even worse domains and hell will empty its outhouses, lounges and barracks onto the earth.)
5. Find and kill the last huntmaster
6. Destroy a city but leave its buildings intact, for a dungeon to soon take root. The wealth of the city is yours for the plundering.
7. Wage a war in fairy country with lances made from holly trees. Castles and lands to the survivors.
8-10. The huntmaster simply wants you to hunt and consecrate each kill to it.

Traits for Older D&D (v2)

TRAITS

Traits are facts about the character's background, skills, characteristics.

THE BASICS
Characters start with up to two Traits. Traits might have some kind of non-combat benefit (maybe a Cave Elf knows something about this kind of cave, maybe a rat picker could recognize this disease). 

Pick a Birth and non-birth Trait from the below or roll a d20 on the one and 3d20 on the other.

These are some recently used traits. 

BIRTH TRAITS

1  Tinkering Gnome
2  Elf (either City or Cave)
3  Dwarf
4  Human
5  Halfling (68% chance City-born; 23% chance sewer-born; 9% jungle born)
6  Roma
7  Genasi (d4: Voltaic; Clod; Ember; Diluvian)
8  Tiefling 
9  Dungeon Folk (either Orc or Goblin)
10 Dryad Child
11 A Titan's Chosen (Wolf-rider, Thunder talker, Stormcloud, Puddle, Rust, Ice, Honey or  Glass)
12 Ghoul (alchemical, cursed or necromantic)
13 Gith
14 Foreigner (either Rhodian or Wookie)
15 Mutant (30% chance Fly-Headed, 50% chance Goat-Headed, 20% Frog)
16 Kobold
17 Construct (either Gearforged or Homunculus)
18 Viking
19 Star-Cousin (gold-skinned, tick-like mandibles)
20 Gill-Necked/Head in a Jar (50% chance of Vestigial Tentacles (d6: Neck fringe; Above mouth; shoulder fringe; hands; knees; feet))

BACKGROUND AND CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS

3   Forked tongue 
4   Large Nose
5   Long Fingers
6   Extra Fingers (roll d3 for how many)
7   Missing Fingers (roll d6 for how many)
8   No Nose
9   Cool Hair
10  Piercings (roll d6 for how many)
11 Tattoo (roll d6 for how many)
12 Prestidigitator
13 Ship Rat
14 Wharf Rat
15 Farmer's kid
16 Merchant's kid
17 Child of Privilege
18 Good with Animals
19 Gutter Punk
20 Birthmark (s) (roll d4 for how many and again for location: 1 is head, 2 is torso, 3 is legs, 4 is arms)
21 Great facial hair
22 Hunter gatherer
23 From the Dye towns around Black Mt
24 From the cairn stackers
25 Pig Farmer
26 Child
27 Really Old
28 Fat
29 Third Nipple
30 Vestigial Tail or Leg (50/50)
31 Missing Teeth
32 Filed Teeth
33 Clothier Guild raised
34 Schoolkid
35 Heterochromia Iridium
36 Forester
37 Miner (for ore, gems or through weird tech dumps)
38 Glider Pilot
39 College/Academy raised
40 Missing Eye
41 Missing Ear
42 Rat Catcher
43 Rag Picker
44 Bald
45 Alopecia areata
46 Albino
47 Limner
48 Tenter
49 Brewer
50 Cobbler
51 Quarrier
52 Tax Samurai
53 Sword sharpener
54 Cultist (True Green, Black Mountain, Witch-Cult, Dunwitch)
55 Hermit
56 Starlet/Actor
57 Musician
58 Well-thewed
59 Sparklepony
60 You have a secret (log lady)

pictures: some cover or something cool, Paul Reid,  Masateru Ikeda

Saving Throws, Critical Saving Throws, Class-Specific Saving Throws (really, for any D&D)

I left saving throws off my class rundown, because I struggle with them. Some days I think they're flabby, on other days, I like the granularity multiple saves afford. Here is the cleanest iteration I've been able to come up with. Admittedly, this is far from original. I've used a similar version in the past but it was clunkier, and +Mike Mearls's recent post about saves in Next brought me back to this concept. It's seen a single session of play, in this form, at this point.

SAVING THROWS

Are a mechanic that assist in determining your fate when you face a catastrophe.

CATASTROPHES

are things like:

• Character death
• poisons and toxins
• getting hit with an undesired spell or magical affect
• massive area of affect attacks
• catastrophic damage (hit with a giant stone, falling ceiling, stepped on by a massive monster)

SINGLE SCORE

Roll d20 + your level, aim for 19+.

CLASSES MATTER, CRITICAL SAVES

A Character's class indicates a certain extra facility or luck when facing down certain types of affects or when facing down catastrophes in a specific way and may also grant a critical save (roll a natural 19 or 20; or not). Players must declare their intention to use their character's class to augment their saving throw before rolling. 

Fighters can try to "withstand" catastrophe. Whenever a fighter grits her teeth and bears the brunt of an incoming assault, add two to the roll to save. Describe how you intend to do this. To critically save  you must be in a position to prevent others from taking damage; so long as you can convincingly repel the oncoming source of damage, you can prevent if from affecting others.

Rogues can try to avoid the attack entirely. Describe how you intend to do this and add two to the roll. To critically save you take way less, maybe no damage at all. 

Magic-Users can try to withstand spells or magical affects that can be cast by a Magic-User (add two to your save). When you critically save you can counter-spell and thereby unravel and the spell entirely.

Clerics can try to withstand spells or magical affects that can be cast by Clerics or Magic-Users (add two to your save). When you critically save you can counter-spell and thereby banish and negate the spell entirely. 

WHAT HAPPENS DIEGETICALLY ("IN THE FICTION")

When you fail:

you take the full affect, likely death, GM describes, likely gives you a last word or gesture

When you succeed:

if you're just rolling without  using your class, then the GM decides how what your character has done to minimize or avoid the catastrophe; or

if you're rolling using your class, the GM will decide how the save unfolds, based on how you've described your character using their class to augment the save.