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The Trader

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The Trader 10 HP, 5 STR, 10 DEX, 12 WIL, bag-slam (d10) Small, insectoid merchant that frequents deep dungeons. Appears abruptly in hopes of trading for unusual objects; disappears just as abruptly once a trade is made. If given something it shows interest in, it will give an object in return. Roll 1d6. 1-3: Obscure piece of Junk, 4-5: Item of comparable value and interest, 6: Useful Relic. Deep in the dungeons depths, you may be surprised to run into the Trader. They appear suddenly, and they do not speak, they just stare with wide unblinking eyes. In a moment, they pull something unique from their pack--a trinket, it appears, but with hidden value... at least that's what you presume from their eager insistence. However, they do not accept regular money--they seem to have no use for it. Instead, they trade in kind: an oddity for an oddity. The Trader is scrupulous, and makes for no easy dupe. Be wary, however; the Trader's own wares are useless junk just as often as they are...
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Vice-spider

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Vice-spider 7 HP, 10 STR, 16 DEX, 6 WIL, claws (d6+d6) Large, agile spiders with spiny forelimbs and a pincer abdomen. Often found in small packs, they prefer to ambush from a ceiling or crevasse. Critical Damage:  The vice-spider grabs the target in it's pincers and makes a hasty getaway to finish their meal elsewhere. Silent and swift predators, you'll be lucky if you hear their chittering and skittering before they appear; stalking across walls and ceilings, skittering legs and long feelers clamor hungrily for their next meal. First, they lash out with their ragged spiny forelimbs, then grab prey in massive grasping pincers to carry them away with wicked speed to be devoured. Often they are encountered in groups of two or three, using limited coordination--through clitcks and chitters--to corner prey. There appears to be some sense of ownership among them, as they never fight over food or steal from each other. Take caution: if they are found alone there is probably a hun...
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Dungeon Room Opinions: Mapping at the Table, Part 2 - Abstract Mapping Toolkit

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In my last post I established my preference for Abstract Player Mapping. The summary is this: making players draw the map yields lots of fun benefits, and making sure the map they draw is abstract and minimal prevents player mapping from becoming so burdensome as to overwhelm its benefits.  Today I'm going to give you some tips on how to verbally deliver such a map with as few hitches as possible. Classes of detail The first idea I want to acknowledge is that certain details (and levels of precision) are suited to specific needs. As a game master, you should always be tuned into what your players want to accomplish, and by paying careful attention to what level of detail is needed for that purpose you will save time and attention in the long run. For our purposes, there are at least three classes of detail: Visceral.  The aesthetics of a space--what do the players see, hear, smell, etc? These details focus players on the world , and are therefore the most important for immer...
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Adderfolk

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Adderfolk 5 HP, 9 STR, 16 DEX, 6 WIL, bite (d8), longbow (d8) Long, serpentine humanoids with unnaturally long limbs that live among the trees  Hunt in teams of three to five members, preferring to attack at range from high places  Their long limbs and claws make them excellent climbers; they use their long tails for stability and cannot be easily knocked from a perch. Deep in the forest they hunt. High in the trees they move, swiftly and silently; they are relentless and effective hunters.  By most accounts they are merciless and hostile to outsiders, but a few speak of a different impression--of spotting them unawares with a far away look in the eye, as though straining after a song on the breeze that no one else can here.  The truth is tragedy: of a people--noble, cunning, and strong--poisoned by a dark curse, carried on dra...
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Red Meadows

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  A sweet smell drifts on the breeze. The trees part to reveal a red stained scar across the forest, spreading far in either direction: tall grass--bobbing lazily in the breeze. All is quiet until a wild goat ventures forth from the tree-line to graze. One step, then two, into the tall grass. It bleats in satisfaction, lowers it's head to feed, and for a moment all is well.  A struggle, and a cry. The goat is pulled to the ground, writhing, bleating in fear. Then silence. This is no ordinary grass. It is the grasping-grass, the choking-weed, blood-barley--dyed red with the life of it's victims. It draws them in, and it feeds.  Commentary Science-fiction art is full of depictions of planets with wild and unnatural colors. Most recently, I think it was a piece for No Man's Sky that stuck in my mind. Red grass is just so delightfully alien. I wanted to infuse a fantasy world with a dash of that strangeness. On another occasion, I was thinking about Forestcrawls and was ponde...
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Dungeon Room Index: Lairs

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Places where powerful monsters make their home, keep their treasure, or fall back to for safety. Here are the rooms, (but the notes are a little more important than usual for this one): The Lair of the Beast This entry is a little different; it's not too hard to talk about " Libraries " and make a bunch of rooms with really thematically consistent elements, but Lairs require a different approach because the only way you can understand how to build a Lair is by understanding what kind of creature's Lair it  is . So, for these rooms, I took a look at the  Cairn Bestiary  and chose one or two monsters from each category. From there, my process is pretty easy to replicate: consider what a monster's Lair is  for ;   it's not just a place that this thing sleeps; it's also a place of  safety . That means that a monster's Lair should be a place that the creature has chosen--or created--to  amplify their strength s, and to  mitigate their weaknesses. ...
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Dungeon Room Index: Mines

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Mines As always, here are the rooms: "And they call it a mine!" When I think of mines in the context of fantasy adventure games, two very different pictures come to mind. First, there is the simple, literal sense of a "mine"--more or less a human made cave chasing gold or whatever. Second, is the classic dwarven mine--part mine and part underground empire. Needless to say, the two images don't actually have a ton in common. Additionally, the second sense of the word also functions a lot like our entry on Sewers : it's not that you think up endless "mine" rooms so much as you embed other kinds of rooms in and around a kind of dwarven-mine-aesthetic. (Or, whatever other mine-empire-creating civilization you've cooked up.) Anyways, I've tried to do a little of both for this one. As such, some of these rooms were conceived by first considering a previous room category in the context of a fantastic...
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