John on said: Actually I just got done rewriting CSIO to give it a slightly more low-magic, swords-and-sorcery feel… a table of possible henchmen for hire…
Here’s a table of untested, untrustworthy and somewhat incompetent henchmen.
Roll 1d20 for each column | Former Occupation | Incompetence | Motivation | Attribute |
1 | Barkeep | Bad at fighting | Sick relative | Nervous |
2 | Gravedigger | Equipment upkeep | On the Lam | Tells bad jokes |
3 | Town Guard/Jailor | Falls asleep on watch | Just greedy | Overconfident |
4 | Headsman | Coward | Pride (wants to jump class/caste) | Obsessed with bathing |
5 | Prostitute or madam | Easily confused | Owes money to a wizard | Glutton |
6 | Knight | Clumsy | Under a spell | Drunkard |
7 | Farmer | Sociopath | The thrill | Angry |
8 | Shepherd/cattleman | Easily discouraged | Spoils of war | Young |
9 | Bard | Hero worship | Tales of old | Religious |
10 | Sailor | Oblivious | Misplaced sense of chivalry | A witch |
11 | Craftsman | Wooden leg | Redemption | Sings off key |
12 | Librarian/scholar | Loud | Prove self/earn money to marry | Good medic |
13 | Clergy (non adventuring) | Very stupid | Daddy/mommy issues | Insomniac |
14 | Sewer cleaner | Physically weak | Just crazy | Afraid of or dislike of non-humans |
15 | Printer | Wanders off | No other options in old profession | Hedonist |
16 | Cook or household servant | Can’t count | Wants to travel far away | A boor |
17 | Actor | No sense of direction | Voices in head giving orders | Lecherous |
18 | Town bureaucrat | Absent minded | Mean | Think of self as equal or superior to employers |
19 | Street vendor | Kleptomaniac | Death wish | A fan of gladiators/adventurers |
20 | Town crier | Generally mildly incompetent -1 to all attempts to do anything | Prove worthy to god | Knows many local legends, all untrue or the details are wrong in some crucial way |
Bring on the Ordinary: Post Your Mundane Requests Here
It’s been quiet around here, thanks to some gainful employment that fries my brain on a daily business. On the good side, I’ve been playing 1e fairly regularly and am helping wrangle submissions to this year’s Secret Santicore. I gotta hand it to Jez, Secret Santicore is a real crown jewel in the DIY/OSR community.
I did write one encounter for someone’s personal use (and thus didn’t blog it) and it was an unusual one for me in that there was no magic. Just the woods, an archer and a road. I purposely avoided anything fantastic as a key element of the encounter and I was quite pleased with the results.
Being one of Santicore’s helper elves also showed me where people’s minds are in terms of what they want from their D&D and I have to say this year will be pretty gonzo. With DCC and Carcosa coming out, I’m not surprised people are in a gonzo state of mind. I’m not immune–I read and want to play in DCC and appreciated Carcosa and I damn sure expect some top-notch stuff from the 2012 Santicore.
But then I’ve been playing 1e AD&D as a fighter with the New York Red Box crew. A dumb one–a pregen in a rules-as-written campaign using a Judges Guild module. And our magic user is reluctant to cast his spells, so in a lot of ways, there’s hardly any magic in this game. And I kind of like being a simple fighter.
And then I saw 13 Assassins. There has GOT to be some sort of kick-ass adventure there. And if this doesn’t make you want to break out Oriental Adventures or Legend of the Five Rings or Ruins and Ronin, you are a fool.
And then today I get my package from Sir Raggi, which had The God That Crawls and The Magnificent Joop Van Ooms, both of which are set on EARTH (thank you) and one in my favorite foreign city, Amsterdam. The God that Crawls scratches that shambling doom sort of itch, as its name should tell you. I expect I’ll give it a try. Joop does me a real solid with a wharf encounter table with only the tiniest bit of magic or the weird and more than 40 encounters that could really have happened in 1615 Amsterdam.
To make this short story long, I’m in the mood for the non-magical. I don’t mind that most of the OSR is running solidly toward the gonzo, but I think I’m going to spend some time working out a table of brigand encounters and a dictionary of con games to run on your players. Low, low magic stuff that can be used every day and which should make your gonzo stuff stand out.
Keeping what I said above in mind, I’m going to take requests again. If you want some sort of material that is low or non-magic for your campaign, post something in the comments below. As I did last year with “Bring It”, I’ll get to it when I can, which might mean you’ll get it this year.
How is everyone doing, by the way?