Tag Archives: Dice

RPGs

Clean up of New Purple Game Science Dice

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I tried using my camera for better pictures to show the burrs on my new Game Science dice, but it is a cheap camera and better suited to taking pictures of people and larger objects.

The burrs turned “white” and did not come off in big pieces, so what I ended up with were flecks that barely showed up. I did not have a dark background to place them against.

Below shows the transition in brief.

I have had this X-Acto knife for a couple of years, but only now took it out of the package.

I had to buy silver Sharpies. This was not a fine point, so ink was both in the groove of each number and on the face of the die. As soon as I filled in the number, I used a napkin to rub the face and only the ink inside the numbers was left.

I have about five reams of paper that is printed on one side, from moving to working at home. I use it for taking notes when I am on the phone or when working on a data issue for a client. I folded over about ten sheets of paper and slowly shaved off the burrs. The burr on the d24 was huge. A large piece of it broke off and I heard it bounce off something, so I don’t know where it went. NOTE: An old catalog or phone book or magazine also works well for a surface for using an X-acto knife.

I like the final results, and it makes these dice usable. Without coloring them in, I had to pick them up to attempt to read them. Certain rolls, you don’t want to pick up without others verifying. Older eyes make reading un-inked dice quite the challenge. I used to be able to do the fine work, like inking these dice with my glasses on, but now I have to take them off to see clearly such close up work. Let that inform your purchases and products going forward.

Exacto
Exacto
Exacto
Exacto
Silver Sharpie
Silver Sharpie
Burrs
Burrs
De-Burred
De-Burred
Inked Dice
Inked Dice

 

RPGs

Metamorphosis Alpha – Random Plants & Animals

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I posted a few days ago about my itch to dig into Metamorphosis Alpha. While starting to write this post, I realized that the Starship Warden is a megadungeon Innnn Spaaaaace. 17 levels plus the mid levels. Except like one may normally think of a dungeon, it does not have a clear 1st level equals easier. Particular locations double as both traversing the wilderness and dungeoneering. The inhabitants see themselves as travelling in wilderness, and the inter and intra level tunnels and so forth and the buildings on the habitation levels are the dungeons.

After getting that realization out of the way, on to random plants and animals.

On page 19 there is a procedure for Creating Non-Player Creature Mutations. This table focuses on animals, but is easily modified to substitute the plant mutations on page 16.

Begin by choosing the plant or animal type, then determining the number of generations for which a new mutation might be introduced. The rules say 1 – 10 generations, so a d10 easily handles that.

Then roll percentile dice for each generation to determine if a physical, mental, physical and mental, or no mutation for that generation.

Then roll 1-50, d100/2 and look at the physical and mental mutation charts, and if the roll is off the chart, there is a sub-chart for physical mutations, and for mental it always means higher intelligence.

It is simple to do the same procedure and substitute the plant mutations for the physical mutations..

Finally, there is a note that if there are two or three early generations with a defect mutation, that that organism was not viable and start over.

One need not limit themselves to the mutations available in the rules. Make up your own, or borrow from other games. There are enough options here that one need not expand unless a busy campaign with lots of players digs into a lot of options.

I rolled up one animal and one plant using this method.

Chipmunks are small and cute, so why not randomly mutate one and see what happens?

I rolled a 5 on my d10, for 5 generations. So next I rolled percentile dice for each generation to determine what kind of mutation. I came up with physical, physical, no mutation, mental, and physical. Next I rolled d50 (d100/2) for each mutation. In the first generation, I rolled a defect of skin structure change. Then I rolled heightened strength, heightened intelligence,and ended with a defect of anti-reflection, which means that a mental attack or defense has a 25% chance to backfire.

My interpretation of all this is that these are normal looking, if slightly larger chipmunks, that are physically strong, but can’t take a hit. They are smart so they know to avoid a physical fight. They have a crude mental attack ability that sometimes backfires, so they need a few more generations for this power to strengthen and for the defect to fade. These small creatures can get into nooks and crannies and might have arm bands and other useful, but small devices; and know how to use them. They don’t have the power of speech or telepathy, so communication will be crude unless a member of the party speaks chipmunk, or has telepathy.

For a plant, I did not initially specify a plant, but let’s say it’s a dandelion. I rolled 9 on a d10 for nine generations of mutations. I rolled five generations of physical mutations, one generation of mental mutations, and ended with three generations of physical mutations.

The physical mutations are: electrical or heat generation, symbiotic attachment for both the second and third generations, contact poison sap, a defect of an attractive odor, poison thorns, manipulative vines, and texture changes. The mental mutation is telekinetic arm. Since there is no heightened intelligence, there is no communicating with this plant. It merely seeks to eat to survive and reproduce.

It can generate an electric shock to stun or perhaps kill small prey. It has two methods of symbiotic attachment that allow it to control another creature. It’s manipulative vines are a refinement of it’s ability to make symbiotic attachments. It has a contact poison sap, like poison ivy, yet it has an attractive odor that puts it at risk of being uprooted before it bears seeds. It also has poison thorns that keep away unarmored creatures. I interpret this defect to be attractive to some creature or other plant that is immune to its poisons, thus making it vulnerable to specific animals. It must be armored to resist the symbiotic attachment, and have some way to minimize the effects of the telekinetic arm. This means that another creature needs to be generated to fill this niche. Perhaps the skin of this creature will allow the party to pass through an area of these plants with minimal difficulty. Or it could get all the plants in the area to gang up on the party….

The manipulative vines and telekinetic arm server to draw in nutrition from the surrounding area, whether plant or animal. Its poison sap is a weak digestive enzyme that with prolonged contact helps speed the breakdown of plant and animal matter into the soil. It has a structure change to its leaves that are rougher in texture to normal dandelions, but its characteristic bright yellow flower and white seeds remain. One thing it will do with its symbiotic attachments is control a creature to blow its seeds to reproduce. Like dandelions, unless the root is sufficiently uprooted, it can come back. Like regular dandelions, I can see there being a thick patch of these that are slowly growing and spreading throughout their area. Their symbiotic/manipulative vines have a length of 1d3 feet. Perhaps in a few generations the manipulative vines will enable these plants to move towards food, rather than merely draw it in. They could become mindless predators only seeking food when their current soil becomes used up.

It is easy to create new creatures and plants for a variety of purposes, both helpful, neutral, and dangerous. Some dangerous things could be harnessed to be of use, like poison glands, or explosive fruit.

I like how simple this was, and in a few minutes I had two new creatures. The GM can determine how long a generation is and how many generations for negative mutations to fade and something new result. Exposure to additional radiation and other environmental toxins might speed up the possibility of new mutations.

Since some levels are sealed off from others, one could easily generate different plants and animals using the same type as a starting point. One chipmunk on one level has descendants who are intelligent creatures, another remains mostly unchanged, while another might be a deadly and vicious predator.

Of course, as with any RPG, the GM is free to ignore or tweak any random roll, or just make up a creature to suit their tastes or needs.

RPGs

2015 A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal – Cities/Cities As Ruins/Cities As Megadungeons

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Initially, I was struggling with the idea of a theme for this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge. Last year I just picked a topic that fit the letter for that day and went with it. Then I remembered my half started project to help me deal with cities, ruined cities, and my thoughts that a large city was in many ways equivalent to a megadungeon. Indeed, a ruined city is but the surface level of a megadungeon.

I will be fleshing out general ideas and ideas for tables, and on-the-fly information for navigating a large city or ruin without advance preparation, or with a set base of preparation, like a map and a general idea of where the different quarters are, etc. Planning a ruined city relies on planning one that is inhabited, the only difference is that a ruined city needs a reason for why it is now in ruins.

This project is as much a tool to help me as it is to share my insights with others.

I will reference past articles on some of these topics. Some information I may have previously only collected information and not yet made an article. I wrote at least a rough outline of each article and have them scheduled to post. I have been going back to each one and adding, revising, cross linking, and otherwise trying to improve them. So far, I don’t have as many tables as I initially envisioned, but I do have many lists I will work to develop tables or clean up for a list of ideas on various topics. Since this topic is so much on my mind of late, I am linking to posts that have come up and continue to be published by others. One relatively new blog, Lost Kingdom, has coincidentally, published articles that tie very well into mine, and I link to their articles for more details. Trying to find the time to read all of their past articles is a challenge, but well worth the effort.

Building a city for an RPG, whether a living city, or a fallen, ancient one, requires thinking it through and populating it in a pattern that fits. Not everyone needs this level of detail to guide them in creating their cities. I often just determine that there are so many of this or that business and don’t worry about a map. This project is for improving the level of preparation by creating a sort of checklist to touch on, to help DM’s that aren’t so good at spur of the moment to have some ideas to help with improvising their cities.

I look forward to feedback and ideas to fill in gaps.

There will be new tables for some things, and my detailed slant on how to build cities/ruined cities. Of course, in the A to Z Challenge format, it won’t be a complete system, but will contain points and questions to ponder for anyone developing a city. Some of these ideas will translate into building cities for any genre of RPG.

I will quote myself from my Post-Con Write Up of Marmalade Dog 20 and a relevant conversation I had with Adam Muszkiewicz:

When Adam and I were talking the topic of random tables and drop tables and all the dice tables came up. I mentioned that I am slowly crafting an all the dice type table to help me generate area of an ancient “abandoned” city for houses, building, and other features. Adam pointed me to a display at Roy’s booth for Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad, Winter 2014, Issue #1. Pages 10 and 11 have a neighborhood generator, and pages 12 and 13 have a gang generator. The neighborhood generator has a lot of ideas that I am looking for so I bought it.

I am going to enjoy this!

All my posts on megadungeons, and cities.

I also have a list of those RPG bloggers that used the (GA) tag on the A to Z Sign Up Page. I didn’t have time to look for those that didn’t use a tag, so if you want to be on my list, just let me know your number on the sign up list. My list, 2015 A TO Z CHALLENGE – RPG BLOGGERS, is on the right side of my blog under the A To Z Challenge logo.

[UPDATE] I went to each of the RPG blogs signed up for this year’s challenge, and only a couple of them appear to be participating in the theme reveal, so I wait, as do all of us until perhaps later today, or April 1st, when the posts begin.

[UPDATE 2] Here is a link to the List of Those Signed up for the April, 2014 A to Z blogging challenge.

RPGs

FLGS Trip

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Last weekend, I made a trip to WalMart, the craft store, and my FLGS. I got a roll of hex Gaming Paper, and they finally had some GameScience dice. (Yes, I know, this is only a couple days after another post where I had mentioned I didn’t last very long without buying more dice. I bought these the same day as the others, I just spread out my posting about it.)

13GamingPaper&GameScience 14GamesScienceInfo 15PurpleGS

Unfortunately, these are the “not perfect dice” that lead Lou Zocchi to return to running Game Science. I think they will roll fine, but some faces have lines and minor deformities in them, that were not evident until I got home and looked at them.

As expected, all of the have burrs. Only the d3’s burr was small enough to not show up in a picture. I will have another article on de-burring these dice and filling in the numbers for legibility.

For now, below are some fuzzy pictures showing the burrs. My de-burring article will have better pictures.

18d5burr 19d14burr 16d16burr 17d24burr

RPGs

DROOL! Cool Dice!

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How did I not know about these? I guess it doesn’t matter, I can’t afford them. But they are so cool!

I can more than triple the sheet number of dice I have for $171.00 for one full 10 die set. Artisan Dice are priced like the name suggests, and they look it. I wouldn’t mind seeing these up close.

I could buy the three manual for D&D 5e, or the hard bound Metamorphosis Alpha, or many other things.

Alas! These dice shall do on my perpetual wish list. So any rich person who has too much money, can get me a set, I won’t mind.

RPGs

More Dice At WalMart

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I saw the story dice posts that made the rounds a week or so back, so I decided to jump on board. I found them at WalMart. They only had two sets, the blue actions and the green voyages. There are nine dice in each package. (Yes, I know, I just recently wrote about my last dice purchase saying I wasn’t going to buy any more dice…. It’s not that I have a problem, I just had to have them.)

I also just looked in that section and found some game in a tin called Left, Right, Center and had the impression that the dice were one of L, another or R, and another of C. I thought how cool that would be to determine which way a fleeing creature went, or which way a random street, tunnel, or dungeon passageway turned.

What I found when I got home is that each die had R, L, C in succession of sides and a dot on the other three sides, so each die was identical. I did not read the rules for this game, as I was planning to use the dice in a different way. I was a bit let down by what I found when I got home to open the tin.

However, as I thought about it, I had a few ideas. L, R, C can represent left, right, and center for anything. The dots can indicate no change, or a special feature, like a trap, scrawl on a wall, rug, hidden door, etc. One thought was to roll all three dice and let whatever the majority come up determine what it indicates. This could just as easily be decided by a d3 or d6/2, etc. Having a die with what you need on it is very interesting and speeds things up, since you don’t have to remember what the number means or look it up.

01SC&LCR
02LCR
03LCR
04LCRLid

The story dice are interesting and can be mixed and matched. Since I have two sets with 18 total, I could roll a d20 for how many to use, and on a 19 or 20 add one or two other random dice. This could give all kinds of ideas. I rolled each of my sets and made a quick story about each one, to illustrate. I can see how they would be useful to get out of writer’s block.

05SCs
06BlueAction
07GreenVoyages

Actions:

08MyBlueStory

I was out walking and something almost hit me. I saw this guy laughing and he went inside as I approached. I knocked on his door and he did not answer. Finally, he came to the door wearing headphones and acting like he didn’t hear me. That’s when our story took a drastic turn. As I was covering the body, I was caught, and now I’m locked up for good.

Voyages:

09MyGreenStory

The king of the mountain was a real crab. His only joy in life came from drugs and funny mushrooms, but music was banned. After a plague I went on a quest for food and all I found were some beans.

Not necessarily the best stories, but it is easy to string them together and rearrange as needed to make things work.

Need a quick plot point or item – grab a random story die and roll it.

Faster than a table, because the dice ARE the table. That would take a lot of dice for every kind of table, but for specialist tables, this is like dungeonmorph or citymorph dice. Something to mix things up a bit. Relying solely on a table or a die role, can also make things a bit stilted and forced. One should be on guard to avoid having to have dice to generate a map, creature, situation, plot, etc. Be free to ignore a result or modify to make it work.

RPGs

Latest From Amazon – Desk Pads and Wiz Dice

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Last Monday a new package arrived from Amazon with three Tops Quadrille Desk Pads and a package of 100+ Wiz Dice.

I wrote about the quadrille desk pad I once had when I shared the map of a town, for a character in my brother’s campaign. I was reminded of this by the Dungeon Deskpad Kickstarter. I had been toying with the idea of getting quad ruled desk pads for over a year, and I decided to get them, and to joining the Dungeon Deskpad Kickstarter. Once I get my overseas shipment I will take pictures to compare..

The brand of desk pads I got are the Tops. Each is individually wrapped in plastic. They were the least expensive. They are not all square and not all the same exact size. That’s OK. I plan on using them for mapping out an abandoned ancient city/megadungeon. I can also use a sheet for a single sheet map of the town that is the current home base of the players in my campaign. The rough map I have for the town of Larenda is two quad ruled sheets taped together. I can even get a roll of clear plastic “shelf-paper”, and laminate some of these sheets for a quick and cheap dry erase surface. I usually only use maps and such to show relative position. Even if it is an exercise only for me, it will be fun. The one draw back to paper this size for maps is that it is too big for my scanners. I will have o do better than a quick picture with my cellphone. I’ll have to put my cheap camera on one of my cheap tripods, to get good pictures for online.

02TopsPad-Closeup 03TopsPad-Back 01DeskPads&Dice

After ordering the two sets of Koplow Who Knew Dice that arrived last week, I ran across an article on Imagur about Wiz Dice and their bag of 100+ dice vs. the Chessex Pound’O Dice, and I ordered the Wiz Dice based on that article. I am always needing more d4’s and d8’s in play. The Wiz Dice 100+ pack includes a fancy drawstring bag with complete matched seven dice set. I ended up with 103 dice plus the set in the bag, for 110 new dice. I received 15 of each die, except for the d12 and d20, which I received 14 of each of those. So I ended up with 14 matched sets of seven dice, 15 counting the drawstring bad, and one partial set missing the d12 and d20. I have matched sets of solid colors and then the “gem” style dice of the same color: green, blue, red, yellow, purple, and red. Then a solid black, swirled black, and a white set. I have one complete orange set and the other orange set is incomplete. I don’t think most people get that many matched sets. I think it is cool that I have enough dice for 15 players from one order of dice, not counting how many ever sets I had before.

One idea I had with this package of dice is making multiple dice tables using different colors of the same die. For example, if I need a table for 14 different results of a d20, or 15 results of a d8, I can do it.

Magic missile is resolved quicker with more d4’s. Lots of monsters taking their attack is resolved quicker with more d20’s.

Blue is my favorite color, but in dice, I find black and red to be my preference. For some reason, it is the same way for me with Risk. For some colors, I prefer the gem style over the solid style.

I guess I need to have a post with a picture of all my dice. They are not all in one place at the moment, so I will have to defer that for a bit.

I also realized that having so many d10’s makes it easy to roll a d1,000 or a d10,000, etc. just specify which color is which digit. I know that they make custom d10,000 dice for such a thing, but I have to tone it down a bit. I’ve spent more on dice in the first two months of 2015 than I spent all of last year, and most of the three plus decades before that. That isn’t to say that I won’t buy more die this year, but I don’t have to buy them all in the first quarter.

10GreenSets 11YellowSets 12RedSets 13BlueSets 14PurpleSets 15OrangeSets 16Black-BlackSwirl-WhiteSets 04-WizDicePackage 05WizDiceDrawstringBag 06DrawstringBagAndFancySet 07DiceSortedByType 08DiceSortedByMatchedSets 09PartialSetOrangeGemDice

NOTE: Amazon Links are Affiliate Links

RPGs

Who Knew? – Dice Sets Arrive

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Last week I ordered two sets of Who Knew? dice by Koplow Games, the black with white numbers [Amazon Affiliate link] and the red with white numbers [Amazon Affiliate link]. This is in time to game in the next session of +Roy Snyder’s DCC game.

I also ordered a d12 Body Parts die, officially known as a d12 28mm Critical Hits Location Body Hit Dice [Aff link]. Each right/left body part is not quite on the opposite side of the dice from each other, i.e. Right Arm/Left Arm. The locations are Right Arm, Left Arm, Head, Stomach, Left Leg, Right Leg, Right Hand, Left Hand, Chest, Full Body, Left Foot, and Right Foot. One can easily use a table with a d12, but this dice is the table! I don’t do critical hits in my game, but I am sure I can find a use for it. Some ideas: What part of a statue is the trigger for a trap, or to open a door, or release a treasure? What part is stung by a giant insect? What body part touched the mold/fungus/slime/acid/poison/undead? What body part has the king’s birthmark? I am sure there is probably some place that prints custom dice. One could easily get a set of dice printed with parts of a table for a roll all the dice table without needing a separate table.

The Koplow dice seem rounded, much like Chessex dice. The d30’s rolled like crazy, but not quite as bad as a d20 from back in 1978 that is so chipped it’s almost a sphere. Yes, I’m a Game Science fan.

The Koplow d3, d5 and d7 are actually doulbe the number of sides, just repeating after 1-3, 1-5 and 1-7. The d6’s are numbered 1-3 twice, the d5’s are actually d10’s numbered 1-5 twice, and the d7’s are really d14’s numbered 1-7 twice. There is no d14. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the d7 and d14 are the only dice that can’t be simulated with a combination of other standard RPG dice. So roll a control die with the d7 if you need a d14. I must have mis-read when I ordered, I thought there was a d14 in the package.

I like the black with white numbers. I would use the red ones on my mom’s birthday, since red was her favorite color. I already wear red on her birthday.

I read a review on another dice set a few days after I ordered this shipment from Amazon, so I have another package of dice coming in a few days, so look for a few words and pictures.

Every gamer likes dice pron, right?

Opening
Opening

Koplow Packages
Koplow Packages

Koplow Sets
Koplow Sets

Black
Black

Red
Red

d12 Body Parts
d12 Body Parts

RPGs

Locks

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A Flickr post of a picture of the Darien Chest on the OSR Community Page got me to thinking about locks in FRPGs and I decided to write about them. My father was a locksmith, so I have some knowledge of this. Dad ran his shop out of the garage. I remember many cold and frozen nights going out to one of the truck stops out by the interstate to help some traveler who locked their keys in their car or broke their key in the ignition. Many locksmith tools require a fine touch or are small enough that gloves get in the way. Ice cold metal on bare skin in the middle of a snowstorm in January is not fun. I would have rather held too hot to touch metal in a hot and humid car in July with sweat in my eyes.

If you think weather doesn’t matter in a game, imagine a thief encountering a fancy lock that requires all his skill and his fingers are numb from the cold. Would you give the thief a negative modifier? Would you let the thief, if the player thought of it, warm his hands with a torch or lantern to negate the effect? What about a lingering Wall of Ice spell? It gives off a lot of cold and in AD&D a falling/breaking Wall of Ice causes damage like an Ice Storm. It would also cause a room and any metal, including locks, tools, and hands to be cold.

Locks prior to the industrial age, with its uniformity and interchangeable parts meant that no two locks were identical without a massive amount of effort on the part of the locksmith. Thus, picking locks is a new experience for each one encountered. Locks were of iron and perhaps brass. Iron locks tended to be bigger with less fine mechanisms. The use of brass in locks lead to smaller locks and keys, but it is only industrialization that makes the abundance of small and secure locks that we have with us today. Prior to industrialization, only the rich could afford locks. How many peasants have a lock other than a bar on the door? Locks could be made out of any material, wood, plastic, glass, metal, etc. I once made a crude lock with Legos, but it was far from secure.

Perhaps the same locksmith will use a similar design, but barring a lot of time to make them identical, there would still be some variation. Also as a locksmith becomes more skilled and refines that skill over time, the flaws and weaknesses in older designs will be addressed. Students of the same locksmith would show that influence, but the master would point out the most obvious flaws, perhaps reserving his best ideas to give him an edge. Students that exceed the master would have better locks.

Keys or means of opening the locks would be varied. There could be a combination of dials, like modern safes, or knobs, buttons, slides, or switches. Keys could look like we think of skeleton keys, or could have a variety of shapes and features to disguise their true nature and means of releasing a lock. That would be the strictly mechanical and technological means.  There could be traps incorporated into a mechanism on a chest, door, or other item to be secured. Traps could be merely mechanical and designed to frighten, draw attention, wound, or even kill. In addition to mechanisms, there could be various poisons to incapacitate/capture or flat out kill any thief, depending on the nature of the contents or anticipated contents to be secured.

In a fantasy setting, there would be magical means. A Wizard Lock spell is proof against all but magic or great force. Knock is a near universal key. Simply casting some spell that gives a hint of magic to confound wizards would be a neat trick, like Nystul’s Magic Aura. I’m an AD&D player/DM so I go with the names of spells that I am familiar with.

Keep in mind that a lock is used to keep others out and that lost keys are a big deal. In my online game our group found a simple small coffer with no lock, and one player went into overdrive looking for secret panels and a locking mechanism. This was a decorative item that a suspicious player latched onto the idea of more importance than necessary, and I am sure was of great entertainment to the DM. On the other hand, in AD&D, a thief can’t try to pick a lock he has failed to pick until he has gained a level. From the perspective of someone with locksmith training, that is not very realistic. A locksmith can keep at it until they have it. However, a thief usually does not have the luxury of trying. A thief operates by stealth and speed. Taking too long to get away with the goods is a no no. A prime example of this is stealing cars. I had my car stolen. I learned the hard way that GM cars of a certain era were easy to steal if one had the tools to bust the window and pry away the poor quality metal on the steering column. One then can use a screwdriver or even one’s finger to pull the mechanism that activates the starter. I started my car like that for a couple of years until I had the money to fix it. I had a Club, so it couldn’t be stolen. I still had an idiot try to steal it after I got the Club. They knocked out the window and then noticed the Club. SMH.

I helped my Dad with several bank jobs. Customers lost their safe deposit box keys, so we had to drill out the locks to get it open. With all the right tools and access to a safe, it is not that quick and easy as they do it in the movies. It always took us a couple of hours to drill out the locks get out the box and give it to a bank employee and then put in replacement locks.

One time, we even had to go to a nearby small airport to replace a lock for which they lost a key for a lock box built into it.

I always laugh at TV shows where the person has a single pick and picks a door. Nowadays it seems that they use a pick and a tension wrench, but I still laugh when they use them to pick a deadbolt. I’m not saying that you can’t pick a deadbolt, I’m saying you can’t pick and open one with a small spring steel tension wrench if the deadbolt is hard to turn.

Cars are not as easy to unlock as they make it appear on TV. Different model cars have different internal mechanisms and there are different variations on the tools used. Modern cars with power locks are beyond my knowledge. They were not too common when I was helping my Dad. He always said, if you can’t use the tool in a couple tries, stop so you don’t damage anything. I don’t know if that rule of thumb still applies.

Also a quick FYI – The points on your key should go up when opening the locks on your house doors. If the points/cuts on the key point down, then the lock is installed upside down and more likely to accumulate dust and dirt that fouls the pins and springs. For double-sided keys, like those for cars, it does not matter, those locks tend to have a dust cover.

I love the sign that my Dad used to have. It said lock work – $15, if you worked on it first – $50. I always got a kick out of the looks on people’s faces when they saw that sign and thought it was the real price. For some customers, it should have been.

But what does all this musing and reminiscing require? A Table! Better yet a series of related tables!

Material – 1d6 (Lock and key material are usually the same, but could be different to obscure their connection.)
1-Wood (Hard woods for strength, soft woods for decoration.)
2-Metal (copper, bronze, brass, iron, steel, mithril, adamantite, etc.)
3-Glass (clear, opaque, etc.)
4-Gems (Roll for type based on value.)
5-Mixed
6-Other (Plastic, bakelite, other high tech material in a low tech world.)

Size – 1d6
1-Tiny (Difficult for human to use, gnomes, halflings and smaller can use with ease)
2-Small
3-Medium/Average
4-Large (Difficult for gnomes, halflings and smaller to use.)
5-Huge (Difficult for humans and smaller to use. Very difficult for gnomes, halflings and smaller to use.)
6-Gigantic (Very difficult for humans and smaller to use. Without magical aid, nearly impossible for gnomes, halflings and smaller to use.)

Decoration – 1d8
1-Rough/No finish
2-Plain/Basic Finish
3-Fine/Highly Polished
4-Engraved
5-Inlaid with precious metals (brass, bronze, silver, electrum, gold, platinum, mithril)
6-Accented with gems (roll for type, or based on value)
7-Any two of 3, 4, 5, or 6
8-Any three of 3, 4, 5, or 6

Key – 1d6 (Can be same or different material from lock.
1-Skeleton Key
2-Hollow Tube
3-Rod
4-Sphere/Round
5-Standard Polygon
6-Mechanism (Turn/twist, press, slide, etc. to make some part available or more out of the way for key to function.)

Trap – 1d4
1-Noise/Alarm/Alert
2-Injure to leave a trail of blood or scent for tracking (Option to release the tracking beast, from a super friendly, but loud basset hound, to large and hungry something or other. d10 for severity)
3-Trap/Capture/Slow (Net, cage, rope, pit, sticky, stun, etc.)
4-Kill or Maim (Lethal mechanism or poison or both.)

Condition – 1d8
1-New/pristine/well oiled
2-Used but well maintained
3-Used but poorly maintained (rough, rusty, hard to turn, etc. Noisy when operating.)
4-Used but not maintained (Severe issues with normal use, in major need of expert to refurbish, chance to not lock or unlock when desired. Very noisy when operating. Chance to break or bend key.)
5-Disused but functional.
6-Disused but difficulty functioning.
7-Disused and very rusty/worn/corroded.
8-Broken (50% chance to be broken in the locked or unlocked position. What modifier is needed for a thief to unlock a broken lock in the locked position?)

Secret – 1d6 (Additional action required to enable/disable ability of key to lock or unlock. Could also be tied to disabling traps.)
1-Button
2-Lever
3-Switch
4-Knob/Twist
5-Slider
6-Combination of 1d4 of 1-5 above.

Magic – 1d6
1-Nystul’s Magic Aura
2-Magic Mouth with an obscure activation instruction, so it is likely to be in effect for decades or longer.
3-Magic Mouth designed to attract attention by giving the thief a severe talking to while waiting for the constable. (A wizard might want one to shout if someone used a Knock Spell.)
4-Wizard Lock at 3d6 level
5-Fire Trap at (For druids at 1st level plus 1d12 levels, and for magic users at 6th level plus 1d12 levels.)
6-Glyph of Warding – Typically to protect not destroy the protected item(s). Paralyzation, blinding, or draining a level. (4th level cleric plus 1d12 levels.)
7-Combination of the above. (Wizards with Magic Aura, Magic Mouth, Wizard Lock, and Fire Trap would tend to use all of them on something they wanted kept secure.)
8-Get creative. What is to stop a mad wizard from causing a Geas to be placed on the fool who dares mess with his stuff, or the high priest placing a Quest on a special object in the temple? Hold Person, Slow, Gate, Plane Shift, Teleportation, Conjure Elemental, Monster Summoning, etc. would all be ways to make it difficult for a thief or grave robber to get away with the goods.

Item – 1d6
1-Door/Gate/Cage
2-Coffer
3-Chest
4-Padlock
5-Cabinet
6-Special (What other kinds of items could be locked and how and why?)

[EDIT: You can hear this blog read on Episode 101 of Blogs on Tape.]

RPGs

Details On The As-Needed Character Generation

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+Adam Muszkiewicz over at Dispatches From Kickassistan has his write up of what he calls “emergent characters” that I touched on in my write up of Marmalade Dog 20, and in more detail in my post about collaborative roll playing.

Adam goes into details about its origins and how it has worked in actual play from the GM side.

All I can say it, it is a blast and keeps one on their toes and revving up their off the wall ideas. After two sessions at Marmalade Dog, my character still doesn’t have hit points because he was never hit. I can imagine that it will be a nail biter if I play that character again and have to roll HP after being hit in combat.

I think that style of play works well for a con, and for the right group of regulars it could be a lot of fun. In a con game, it allows one to get up and running with a character quickly that one is more invested in than a pre-gen passed out by the GM.

As I mentioned before, Adam and I talked about this, and a GM with mastery of the rules, or a simple set of rules, like Delving Deeper, by +Simon Bull would best facilitate this style of play.