idea – Rollplay Sidekick

A Time for Collections

Since my last blog entry, a lot has happened in the world. Limitations are very hard in terms of separation from loved ones and social activities that people depend on. Every plan we had this year is out the window and we are indebted to those workers who enable us to continue to live our lives in isolation. One positive is how limitations focus the mind on activities that can be done. With that in mind, I’ve been busy updating and compiling my fantasy RPG publications into comprehensive collections.

Compendium of Fantastical Ideas

It was very satisfying combining all five books into one collection. This was always the plan, as each contains sixty unique ideas, so five books creates a total of three hundred ideas, which seemed a good place to stop the series.

Compendium of Fantastical Ideas is available from DrivethruRPG for $15

Solo Adventures – The Collection

I created these stories in late 2018 and the Covid-19 quarantine gave me a chance to revisit these and update them, which was a lot of fun! Now they are in a collection of their own ready to provide entertaining to someone else looking for a bit of escapism and interactive story-telling.

Solo Adventures is available from DrivethrurRPG for $10

I’ll start working on new projects soon. But in the meantime, I hope you stay safe in these uncertain times. Lots of love, Jon (rollplaysidekick.com).

Rolling Word Play – 61

Creating Roleplay ideas based on randomly generated words. Here’s today’s selection: Discover more about Chop Icon Thickening, Spoon Integrating Magazine, and Protections Deliver Young.

Chop Icon Thickening
The wrath of the Tentacle God is a story of woe for whoever dares. It all starts with a seemingly innocuous, small box, about the same size as a shoe box. On its front it contains hieroglyphics, which with time and intelligence can be translated as an ancient form Draconic script. It talks of slaying enemies and spreading the name of chaos. The box appears to be sealed but can be opened with little difficulty. Inside there is a lot of powder and a very small, crude miniature of an eight-limbed cephalopod. If removed from the box, this miniature will expand, absorbing the air around it. Only air-deficiency such as water, a landslide or a spell will calm it and allow it to deflate. Chopping it up does not pop it like a balloon. Rather it is a jelly-like semi-transparent thing that appears more life-like the larger it gets. If allowed to get beyond 60ft squared, the legs will start to move independently and thrash about, hitting anything in its path with bludgeoning damage. Building structures will not stop it, only solid rock will prevent its further expansion. If it is not stopped, it will reach its full size of 120ft. by 120ft. and after another 10 minutes of chaos, will finally shrink to its original size and sit in its box, sealing itself back in.

Where will the adventurers encounter this instrument of chaos? Will it be lost and unidentified in an antiques shop or in the hands of an unhinged rebel fighter?

Spoon Integrating Magazine
The reloading mechanism is very popular with ranged weapon marksmen. It is an enchanted spoon that has recently been added to crossbows, taking bolts from a pouch below the trigger and inserting it into the device, ready for the next round of combat. Military engineers are now looking to add it to experimental devices called guns, but it is in its infancy. As for shortbows, it is considered too user-intensive a device for the enchanted spoon to be of use.

Protections Deliver Young
Also called the ‘Gingerbread Trail’, there is an enchantment that attracts the young and the naïve. In the winds, the spell drifts, instilling in the minds of its victims a ‘call of adventure’. The stories pop into their minds, sometimes fabricated but sometimes feeding off the half-baked rumours these people have heard. Suddenly, there is a tower made of gold, a house made of gingerbread and a glade full of unicorns to find. These are normally a form of trap used by spider-vixens, witches and warlocks. It can also be used as a quick way to coerce children away from danger.

In this example, many children have been captured by a goblinoid warlord who intends to use them for ransom. The protections around his fortress make it virtually impossible to enter without the correct knowledge. With some effective information gathering, the adventurers will learn that he doesn’t have much manpower and is holding the children in place with toys and a form of forgetfulness spell. They spend their days absent-mindedly playing. Have a mini-quest to uncover this lesser-known ‘Gingerbread Trail’ enchantment, which will overpower the fortgetfulness enchantment on the children and allow them to follow the spell’s trail out of the protected fortress for themselves.

Rolling Word Play – 54

Creating Roleplay ideas based on randomly generated words. Here’s today’s selection: Discover more about Frustrating Matched Believer, Sake Credit Midmorning, and Faded Recruiters Forget.

Frustrating Matched Believer
Panegulis is a female acolyte who has the enthusiasm and application of a puppy. There has never been a more adaptable but more incompetent being known to the planes. She appears a wide-eyed Tiefling (pf demon ancestry) but could just as easily fit into a feywilds scene, with her wild hair and small horns. She has believed wholeheartedly in a cause many times yet each time she joins a cult or follows a powerful persona, she invariably causes trouble. Panegulis never means to cause irritation but her constant questioning and absent-mindedness means she cannot be trusted with even a simple task. For those groups that have stuck with her and spent many agonizing weeks training her, she has the awesome ability to become the accidental pin to burst their balloon. It’s as if she drains them of fortune and blocks the one crucial cog in the machine.
One famous occasion was when the large Cult of the Ascending, found that days before their ‘great journey into the void’ their numbers had dwindled dramatically and that the only mage who knew the last rites was also missing. This failure was traced back to a fatal spelling error in the password to enter their hideout. If pronounced as written, it transported the creature reading it into a plane full of gigantic carnivorous plants. Panegulis was of course given scribe copying duties that day.

Sake Credit Midmorning
Midmorning in the city and a sudden drop of temperature was followed by reported thefts of gold and platinum coins right across town. It seemed that wherever folk felt a chill, gold had disappeared; a curious incident that will repeat days later if not prevented by adventurers.
What is causing such strange thefts to occurs, and why is it preceded by cold winds? One theory is that there has been a summoning of an air elemental or genie that is collecting these coins at the bidding of its masters. An exotic market stall purchase and some big-spenders connect the incident to the genie and its masters.

Faded Recruiters Forget

An old God created and groomed a champion to fight for it but events in the godly realms conspired against them. Now the champion has no orders and plenty of ambition. In the guise of a paladin, Sir Gorenspir excelled in his training but has since been cut loose from his order as a wild and uncontrollable force. Sir Gorenspir plans to use his charms and powers to take over the order that spurned him. Once in charge, who knows what he could accomplish now he has no master.
A character and an adventure awaits. Will the adventurers meet the inspiring Sir Gorenspir and be moved by his plans to put the ‘stuffy’ order of knights in their place? Or will the adventurers be recruited by the order of knights to report on their former student and perhaps capture him so that he can no longer spout falsehoods and use his powers unwisely?

Rolling Word Play – 51

Creating Roleplay ideas based on randomly generated words. Here’s today’s selection: Discover more about Connected Notes Flicked, Appeals Bumper Pillow, and Passions Fruit Roadway.

Connected Notes Flicked
On the outside the incidents in question are separate. A golum wreaking havoc in a school. The death of a family in a nearby town. And on further investigation, two students of the University of Magic have gone missing along with magical items they were working on. For months the University of Magic has been continuing its internal lessons as well as its public services without admitting anything is wrong. But the University won’t be able to keep it a secret for much longer.

The Wizard Orengary is a very careful operator. He wanted to sever all ties to his foster family and to his childhood and start afresh. Knowing that he forged his way into the University, an establishment that prides itself on having the finest students, his family continued to blackmail him for years until he finally snapped and used his position to set things in motion. His previous identity would be erased from history and his ties to that family gone for good. He took steps to hide the paper trail. With a flick of the wrist, all evidence disappeared keeping people guessing but unable to prove his guilt.

If the players are involved in finding the cause of this disturbance, they will have to uncover the paper trail. Where does his magic send it? Is it in a pocket plane of his own creation, or is there a chest he can summon it to? How many have died in his attempts to conceal his past?

Appeals Bumper Pillow
Little Seeding is a farming community with very little money and very odd customs. There is a large barn in which sits a small box. At night time, the first to bed opens the box and says the incantation. Moments later, a ginormous pillow expands into existence and fills the room. This pillow is so fluffy and large that it provides enough comfort and space for the entire village! This is why there are so few barns. The community shares one for lounging, one for cooking and eating, and one for storing their grain and equipment and one for keeping their livestock warm. For newcomers, it can be a strange sight, to see everyone snuggle on the pillow, both on top and inside with the feathers. The origin of the pillow is a fey creature, or a witch or wizard. Each person will give a different story and smirk knowingly as they tell it.

Passions Fruit Roadway
An old saying by people in some parts of the world is ‘never follow a fruit-tree road’. It’s a strange thought, but sometimes there is a trace of a god or a magical conscience that looks for someone to be loved by or to play with. The fruit tree is a more typical manifestation of that need. The fruit trees contain ripe fruit that are both delicious and dangerous. Once a creature eats from it, they will become more and more reckless and adventurous. They can often hear attractive noises too, such as encouraging voices and romantic music. The fruit-tree road will circle around rocks and corners out of sight, catching the light in an attractive way and almost calling out to the traveller. Those that follow the road to see where it goes will take the ever-winding path onward and upward until they will come to a point at the top where there is only one way to go. The audio illusions become threatening at this point as if there is danger advancing from the road they have just travelled up. If the adventurer takes the plunge they will very likely die plunging either into the depths of the magical energy or hitting the real ground far below.

Rolling Word Play – 47

Creating Roleplay ideas based on randomly generated words. Here’s today’s selection. Discover more about Rattle Swaps Fully, Lengthy Articulate Occurs, and Stone Paradise Smoked.

Rattle Swaps Fully
The Kimaran is one of the most feared shape changers known. They start life as snakes with a large vibrating tale that rattles wherever it moves. The legend goes that they are a god’s way of punishing idiocy. Certainly, those who are foolish or unlucky enough to run into these loud serpents and are swallowed whole suffer a terrible fate. The creature that emerges from the digesting snake looks the same as the prey, but this is in fact the Kimaran. The mind of the digested creature now inhabits a smaller version of the Kimaran’s body and must start its new life, looking for similarly slow or gullible victims.

Lengthy Articulate Occurs
The case of the Drip is one that holds the city in its grasp. It started with one individual who seemed to hear the dripping sound clearly above all others. But soon, more and more beings heard it, and slowly it drew them mad as at ever more frequent intervals they would absent-mindedly stop and call out the sound they heard: “drip, drip, drip”.

Can the players intervene and find the source of this cursed sound? What does it portend, or is the device causing it already having the effect its designer wished? If investigating, the players will need to make sure they themselves do not lose their minds.

Stone Paradise Smoked
The inside of a volcano isn’t the idea of many creatures’ paradise, but for the Lizard folk or Arlatla, it provides them with perfect slopes to soak in the sun’s rays and also the heat to keep warm in all seasons. Situated between the dry plains and the moist jungle, the sacred volcano or Arn provides all this and more besides. The lizard folk have installed several sheltered rooms under the active hill. Each room also has warm air circulating through vents from the magma pools below, providing plenty of good heat. They have created a large green house, which uses the moisture of the jungle and heat from Arn to grow their own foods. The Red Hall is an area where only the elite are allowed. This includes a doughnut-shaped enclosure with a warm pool in the middle, allowing the lizards to enjoy heat, light and water all day long.

Rolling Word Play – 35

Creating Roleplay ideas based on randomly generated words. Here’s today’s selection. Discover more about Spaced Closely, Violinist Wiggling and Refused Issuing.

Spaced Closely
The temple of Ashin Rah is an ancient temple which is still used to practice religious ceremonies today. Ashin Rah was an almighty deity who gained her followers’ reverence by the mighty deeds she performed and the dreaded sacrifices she asked of her followers. Although just outside city borders, the temple practices of today are tolerated because the god worship is Siellanna the Moon Goddess. Unbeknownst to the city however, a cult of Ashin Rah has been steadily growing for some years now and their boldness for sacrifices is steadily increasing. There are rumours that street children have gone missing. Can the adventurers help reveal the cult’s existence and stop the sacrifices from escalating? What might deed might Ashin Rah be planning? Little known Ashin Rah lore reveals that the sacrifices are left tied to the top of the pyramid and that creatures emerge from between the closely-spaced statues to take them to another plane. Can those who have disappeared yet be saved?

Violinist Wiggling
A bard with fey ancestry is a dangerously mix of mischievous and magical. This is definitely the case with Vezor Dirac, the half-tiefling half-nymph. It is said he was created at an almighty party and that mischief and music flow through his very veins. He has played in several bands but his fellow band members and taverns cannot endure him for long. His powers of control and manipulation of the audience include:

Rhythmic foot-tapping: DC 12 Wisdom saving throw Bum wiggling: DC 10 Charisma saving throw Wolf howls: DC 10 Constitution saving throw Partner twirling: DC 10 Charisma saving throw Singing the tune: (requires concentration): DC 10 Wisdom saving throw

Although, the difficulty to resist is not high, for each 5 members of the audience he has in his grasp, the spell DC for everyone increases by +2. Evenings have finished with wild table-top dancing, fights, fires and many bruised limbs.

Refused Issuing
The city newspaper, The Daily Tribute is controlled by the crown. The printing press is a very new invention and is controlled by royal craftsmen. It is used for propaganda to further establish the rule of the royal family and demean their enemies and rivals. So when another printed newspaper is released called The Bootstrap that contradicts the words of the Daily Tribute, this is seen as a very serious offense by those in charge. The adventurers will be requested to root out the rebels, preferably alive. Where did they acquire such equipment? Is there a ‘paper’ trail leading from the manufacturers? What do the writers of The Bootstrap aim to achieve and where is their printing room? The adventurers will have to ask themselves who they believe is in the wrong and if they care either way.