Rolling Word Play – 20

Creating Roleplay ideas based on randomly generated words.  Here’s today’s selection.  Discover more about Robed Prosecutors, Ribs Ringleader and Professes Started.

Robed Prosecutors
The robed prosecutors of Ashuln are both revered and feared for their devotion and lawful powers granted to them by the city-state whenever they wear their formal robes.  But recently, another figure dressed as a prosecutor has been targeting the other law-makers.  Who is this figure and what do they want?  How far are they prepared to go to deal out their brand of vigilante justice?

Ribs Ringleader
A Bone Doctor is not just a medical practitioner but someone who can wield the arcane to manipulate bones and bend them to their will.  This specialist skill starts with carrying out experiments with bones from a corpse. They can learn to alter their shape to sharpen them and use them as flexible weapons.  They can also mend the bone fragments.  Once this is achieved they can manipulate their own bones, fixing damage sustained and even temporarily dislocate in order to squeeze out of a tight situation. As they advance they can move the bones through air using only the power of their magical connection with them.  A highly skilled Bone Doctor can even manipulate other creatures’ bones, causing damage and controlling their movement.

Professes Started
An item that is in the form of incense. In its presence, those that are not aware find themselves professing truths and internal thoughts.  The effect comes in three stages, without the creature knowing that they are communicating personal information.

Stage 1 – Say out loud how they’re feeling – DC 12 Charisma save Stage 2 – Say what’s on their mind/what they’re thinking – DC 14 Charisma sav Stage 3 – Confess the deeds and guilty acts they have commited – DC 16 Charisma save

Rolling Word Play – 19

Creating Roleplay ideas based on randomly generated words.  Here’s today’s selection.  Discover more about Shrill Experts, Replaces Confining and Onions Relatives.

Shrill Experts
There are creatures called Rills that are so advanced in terms of sound manipulation that they can harm and stun their opponents with the mere use of their voices.  Unlike most humanoids they have 4 lungs and many air vents. They also have keen ears.  Their incredible aural powers have been developed mainly as a result of internal wars, meaning their own audible defences are also very strong. In terms of physique they are top-heavy with good strength and wasp-like eyes on either side of their head.  Their legs are thin with bird-like feet, giving them good agility and balance.  There is a rarer mutation that gives them four legs, and these are revered in Rill culture and obtain a high status in their society.

Replaces Confining
Welcome to Hamrash prison.  This salty plane of existence is a giant, infertile field. Plants do grow here – a variant of water cress – but they have little nutritional value and the prisoners need to eat a lot of them in order to survive, essentially turning them into cattle. There is one pool of water and the city state has created a number of artificial shelters.  The prison is very effective in humbling and wearing down the most temperamental of prisoners, but the city state has the moral issue of deciding whether to ‘police’ the prisoners’ behaviour in the prison or to leave them to it.

Onion Relatives
These rotund humanoids known as Inshi, appear to have a shiny, glossy skin.  It enables them to regenerate damaged cells and recover hit points. The skin can also be shed, peeling back to reveal an inner skin without the ailments of the outer.  When they choose to do this, their maximum hit points and strength are reduced, but they are fit and healthy once more.  Only a severe wound would affect the inner layers. They have approximately five working layers (depending on the individual) before the inner organs become exposed.  Here is an example of their stats in 5e (Int, Wis and Cha stay the same):

Outer Layer:  Str:16, Dex:10, Con: 18, Hit points = 40, Regeneration rate = 0

Layer 2: Str:14, Dex:12, Con: 16, Hit points = 34, Reg. rate = 1 hp/round

Layer 3:  Str:12, Dex:14, Con: 14, Hit points = 28, Reg. rate = 2 hp/round

Layer 4:  Str:10, Dex:16, Con: 12, Hit points = 22, Reg. rate = 3 hp/round

Layer 5: Str:8, Dex:18, Con: 10, Hit points = 16, Reg. rate = 4 hp/round

The Inshi can recover their outer skin(s), but it is a painful process that takes a considerable amount of time to do.

Rolling Word Play – 18

Creating Roleplay ideas based on randomly generated words.  Here’s today’s selection.  Discover more about Rallies Swings, Events Tilting and Reserved Sawdust.

Rallies Swings
The thieves guild has an assault course that tests their agility and ability to work together.  New initiates have to wait till at least four creatures are ready to join the guild before they’ll be considered.  They must then take the assault course together by each completing a lap of the course with a bundle of goods (represented by a sack of stones) and passing it onto the next initiate.  Failure can be very costly as there are not only dogs chasing the runners but also swinging weaponry to dodge and walls to climb.  Those that get hit by the assault course obstacles can become crippled for life or even die.

Events Tilting
Ambal’s Trembling Disk is a very powerful magical item.  Its size makes it very distinguishable as is it has the appearance of a black rock and so heavy that it uses a four-legged stand, making it a similar size to a desk. The central-top area of the disk is separate from the outside.  In shape, this central area is flat and then curves into a ball at the bottom.  A skilled magic user who has taken time to master the device can project a visible area of land up to 300 ft. onto the disk and start physically moving the central part of the disk up, down and around.  This causes the chosen area of land to do the same, affecting any creatures or buildings in that area as if hit by an earthquake.  It has been used in city defence and even carried into battle warfare before.  But where is it now?

Reserved Sawdust
In the Gamalen Forest, the wood lives on beyond the death of the tree.  This wood attempts to protect the soil beneath by crawling worm-like on the ground and find the best place for it to finally decompose.  One clever entrepreneur realised that if the wood is taken from the forest, it can have other uses.  Reserved Sawdust is a thieves’ favourite tool to cover their tracks as when dropped on the ground it looks for damp patches to cover and divots to fill.  Before long, the ground looks as if no one walked there at all.

Rolling Word Play – 10

Creating Roleplay ideas based on randomly generated words.  Here’s today’s selection.  Discover more about Herbs Learn, Aura Jolly and Number Audit.

Herbs Learn
A wooden bridge between the village of Orrow and the market town of Flerin has become unsafe, keeping the villagers from trading for supplies.  Something was using the vegetation beside the bridge to whip those travelling across. It almost got old Snor the peddler, but his donkey wasn’t so lucky and fell out of sight into the dense swampy ground below.

The vegetation itself is carnivorous and is attacking those that cross the bridge. When the adventurer’s pass by, roll 1d6 for the plant’s new tactic:

1-2: Disguises themselves as beautiful flowers and fruits ready for picking. 3-4: Aggressive ambush 5-6: Low growl trap as if something lurks underneath the bridge.

Aura Jolly
A magnificent garden produces an effect part illusion-part drug, inducing the visitors to seeing happy, vivid colours when in fact it is nothing of the kind. Faeries and other fey folk wait till the visiting creatures are intoxicated, and then pounce on their prey.  But what is their end-game?  And who is the ring leader?

Number Audit
Those who know it, call it the Valley of the Five.  Whenever a group passing through number more than five or have more than five of an item (for example, five swords), one of the creatures/items disappears. If there are still more than five items or creatures, the effect will repeat.  The only way to stop this effect from recurring is to split the party and the items between them.  Why does this effect occur and where do those who have disappeared end up?

Rolling Word Play – 6

Creating Roleplay ideas based on randomly generated words.  Here’s today’s selection.  Discover more about the Silver Rams, Mason Club and Clever Pinch.

Silver Rams
Mysterious silver coins have been appearing in the forest glade beside the village or Barol.  The coin’s design is not one used by the kingdom, and simply contains the outline of a ram’s head.  The villagers have been very cautious of the objects and have not dared touch them, but just two days ago a child went missing from this area, further fuelling the villagers’ panic.

What could be dropping the coins and were they responsible for kidnapping a child?  A story begins here…

Mason Club
A magical club used to shape large rocks as if they were putty.  Wooden in appearance, it acts as a normal bludgeoning weapon except when making contact with the properties in stone.  Then, it can mould the stone.  Very useful against stone constructs such as golems and especially useful if caught in a cave-in.

Clever Pinch
There is a term, to pinch yourself to make sure you’re not dreaming.  In the case of the gnomes who dwell in hovels about the Creln Hills, they have a different saying;  A ‘clever pinch’ is a way of checking that a gnome is still in control of themselves and to prove to others that they are who they claim to be. There are creatures in the Creln Hills who like to imitate and even control the minds of simple folk who are just getting on with living.  If a gnome says something particularly clever or out-of-character, they will be expected to pinch themselves to confirm their identity.  Before now, when there has been no ‘clever pinch’, conversations have stopped abruptly and the gnome or gnome imposter attacked.

Rolling Word Play – 3

The Inspiration of Chance and Improvisation – Word Play

I’m starting a series where I generate Roleplay ideas based on random words. Let’s see what words I get to play with today:

Massive Analyst
This is a pill taken by a creature that is desperate for an answer that they cannot yet grasp. Many of those that have taken the pill take a long time to re-emerge from their semi-comatose state.  Some never return, lost in the midst of a mental or spiritual maze.  For most, they have returned profoundly shaken and many are never the same again. The epiphanies they bring with them are often not simple and take events in a completely different direction.

Here is a way of playing out the effects of a Massive Analyst on a d10 die roll:

1 – Utterly lost. Re-roll again the following day to see what happens next.   Add a mental quirk to your character sheet from this life-altering experience.

2-3 – Confused in the unconscious realm. You re-emerge 1d10 days later, but have lost some of your mental sharpness.  Add a condition to your character sheet to reflect this.

4-5 –   You return quickly but altered by the experience.  Add a mental quirk to your character.

6-7 – You were unaffected by the experience and were able to return quickly.  You will gain +1 to the die roll if you ever decide to retake this pill.

8-9 – You found an answer to the question.  Check with the GM to see what wisdom you gained.

10 – You had a profound epiphany.  It is greater than you could have possibly imagined!  Check with the GM for details.

 Activate Understanding
A scene of devastation. Zombie roam across an area known as the Death Zone.  They are surprisingly fast and aggressive, attacking living organisms, which either bleed out or become animated undead husks like themselves.

The source of the trouble is in a grave.  A powerful magical ring was left with the corpse of an elderly lady who died a few years ago.  She carved it and used her magics to prolong her life.  As her own energy drained away, the ring’s stored energy was still working.  As the flimsy wooden coffin in which she was buried deteriorated, the ring’s influence tainted the soil and cause an un-life in the corpses of those in the graveyard.

The town records and library will have information on an old woman who dodged death for so long (she was over 140 years old) and where she was buried.  There is also information about how to use witchcraft to change the energy flow in an item.  Using a ritual and a few key ingredients, the ring’s energy can be changed to generate a flow of peace and rest.  This is a way to finally end the reign of un-life.

Sorry Accept Patience
A society run by a zealous religious faction expects their citizens to report their own sins and the sins of others.  For those who are brought to receive their punishments, they must first ask for repentance (Sorry), accept they are wrong and sign a confession (Accept).  Having signed, they must then await punishment, which will be delivered when the religious faction deem it appropriate (Patience).  This can sometimes take several years and can even be provided in smaller installments.  The faction controls the populous in this way, with fear of punishment and of being reported for sins.