1d10 Weird Cargo Events Table For Your Old School Space Campaigns

 Across the space lanes there are always incredible events that can happen to even the most hardened spacers & adventurers. Here's a table of incredible & weird events to spice up your old school space operas. 

1d10 Weird Cargo Events Table

1. Secreted in the load or cargo your hauling is an alien head with a hidden agenda 
2. Someone switched loads on you & the original owner wants his back 
3. There's a religious artifact that a very heinous group wants back:1.They hate spacers & you'll make a nice sacrifice to their god 2. They will track you round the moons of Nibmus three into hell itself 3. They're not very good assassins but there are lots of them so they'll be showing up throughout the adventure 4. The artifact your hauling is their god 
4. There's an energy reading coming from the cargo & its getting stronger. There's also a high concentration of  Eldritch Energy leaking out of the cargo 
5. That's not actually your cargo its a nano bot swarm that's pretending its your cargo 
6. Un dead lich prince is actually your passenger & he's hungry 
7. The cargo is actually a time machine (roll on time machine table)
8. Local crime boss wants a word about your cargo 
9. The cops want a word about your cargo & they've brought a battle cruiser along! 
10. The cargo is unsecured & someone needs to go back & belt it down. Roll percentage dice to see whose going back 

1d12 Random Sacred Totem Artifacts & Treasures Table For Your Old School Sword & Sorcery Campaigns

 

Evin Thornkill watched the herd of one horns pass before him. He had no wish to get the giant animal's way. For his tribe these things were sacred animals but there was a strange skull sticking out of the patch of swamp ground. He'd seen in it last night glowing in the marsh land but he had a limited time before Alas Sure Walker the half caste warrior & his blood brother got back to camp. Alas was checking on the latest payment from their client. They had successfully navigated the low lands following the game trails until they found the ruins of the old fort. They had no wish to meet the hyena devil warriors who made their home there. They'd made camp some two miles East & Evin was on a scouting mission. Last night the first of the visions started in Evin's mind but his mother had taught him the way of such things. Now making his way around the herd he found himself staring into the black morass of the muck & slime. His hands grabbed the the painfully white bone instinctively & instantly he was taken elsewhere across the universe. He was something alien & else, he held the three bones skull in his tendrils & whispered the scared chants in the three tongues of the moon.The skull held the power for his brother's & sister's clutch even as the dreaded shoggoths closed in on the halls of power.
Suddenly he was awoken by the violent shaking of Alas, "Ahh your awake again! It is good to not have you screaming for the whole night. I've had to put this leather hide in your teeth to keep you biting off your own tongue"
"How long?!" the voice was alien & weird but it was own. He remembered bits & pieces of his far journey.
'About three days old friend'
'The skull?'

"That thing? Well I threw it back into the swamp. The dogs hated it & it must of smelt of the 'Ancient Things'.
'Don't worry I threw it very deep into the deepest part of the swamp'
"Why is the camp filled with these strange purple lizards?'
'Oh they started showing up about a day ago & always hover around you my friend' 

'What do they want?!'
"I don't know but '
'I do!', the voice was high pitched, excited & belonged to a lizard shaman covered in the purple silks & skins of the scared lizards.
Something tells me we are in for a long day', Alas shrugged & Evin groaned as he felt his head ache return.

Down from the hard winds of the Outer Darkness come artifacts & treasures belonging to the Tribes of Men who lost these during the Great Passing. These items are blessed with mysterious occult powers some say come from the Dark Forces. Others insist these artifacts were things lost in the Chaos Conflicts as Old Terra passed away. In addition to the major powers listed on these totem artifacts there is a 20% chance of these items having 1d6 minor spell like abilities. Those who pick up these items are blessed by the totem animal.
They may 30% chance be sought out by a shaman of the appropriate totem animal or spirit. These beings will have some small favor or boon to ask of the totem object's owner.
1d12 Random Sacred Totem Artifacts
& Treasures Table

 

1. A bronze coated skull belonging to a small dinosaur that once belonged to a member of the Great Race of Yith. The skull has the ability to banish great undead or flying polyps once every new moon. This skull also speaks in prophetic rhyme each week  and those that hear it may be granted a +2 in battle 
2. This beautifully carved bone & jade figure is of a bear spirit. The object will put its owner into a very deep meditative trance once per week. During this trance the owner will wander the lower astral realms & gain the wisdom, strength, & power of the bear. The owner will return in 1d4 days from this trance. 
3. This small round geode has within it millions of crystals of amethyst & is sacred to the butterfly spirit. A being of utter chaos trapped with an amber prison. The owner is a able to obtain the fire of this being once per week. The owner's hand strikes gain +2 to all damage. 
4. This strange brass & tin object is the essence of the warthog spirit. This spirit can once per day can possess the owner  granting them the power of a berserk. The warthog spirit can also heal 1d8 points of damage. 
5. This long stick is holy to the three ice women of La Neara. The thing may be broken and instantly freeze everything within a 40 foot radius. This stick enables the owner to speak with the ice women who can grant several small boons to the owner. 
6. This jade figure of a panther enables those who hold it to commune with the panther god. He is a fickle and difficult god at the best of times. 
7. This is the foot of the conqueror  & it enables the owner to access the deep memory banks of humanity. This foot enables the owner to journey back 1d30 years 
8. The spirit magnet of the Little King - This magnet allows the owner to attract themselves along the lines of the spirits. They can cast as if they were one level higher then what they are. The abilities of the magnet enable the caster to use offense spells at their leisure
9. Twelve needles of the pain goddess enable the owner to determine the best course of her influence on any patient suffering with disease or illness. The needles allow the owner to commune with her once a week. 
10. This totem doll enables the owner to access one of the twelve high spirits once a week. It also enables the owner to cast a sphere like cone of darkness within a 12 foot radius. The doll gives a strange aura about enabling the owner to cross over into the spirit realm for 1d20 turns 
11.  Wise Councilor this strange statue enables the owner to speak in any language and to gain access to the totem bird spirit. The owner can rebuke undead and cast a power word stun as strange signs man was never to see appear. 
12. The horn of the unicorn allows the owner to gain the speed of the unicorn & gain a aura of awe for 1d20 rounds. The  horn will not however perform in any evil act but once per day the horn can be used to cast a cure light wounds as per the spell.

1d10 Random Dungeon Finds Dropped By The Crows Table For Your Old School Sword & Sorcery Campaigns

Three Crows against the Rising Sun,
from the series Three Sheets (Mihira no uchi)

Evin watched the birds with the intensity of a starving man. They picked their way across the hard packed ground flying only when necessary.
'Are you going to watch those damn birds all day?' 'The duke is paying us to find the dungeon  & we don't have time to watch crows Evin'
All that came from Evin was a low sshhhhing sound. His jerkin moved little as he watched the birds from under lidded eyes.
"What in the cold Hells are we waiting for?" Just then a quick glimmer of light flashed off of some weird bauble one of the birds picked up and then it was dropped as two female crows fought over the thing.
"That's what we're waiting for", said Evin as they raced breathlessly to site where the bird had dropped a small silver wrought piece of  jewelry with a red garnet & bright green  jade combination mount. It was very old but still gleamed in the sunlight
The thing smelled of damp algae & dungeon funk. "And now Alas we know where the dungeon is & where the entrance is to the dungeon is."
"Its in the well!" "You've been watching the birds scavenging in the run off creek of the ancient aqueduct"
"Very smart Evin, I'll get the horses & our stuff", Alas the half caste warrior quickly made his way to the shrine's stables.



Crows are both cagey & canny, they are drawn to the occult & supernatural as a starving man is drawn to food. They're intelligence is keen & yet utterly alien to mankind making them perfect conduits for the strange radiations & energies of dungeons & ruin locations. These place of dark forces & weird alien ecologies draw these birds as no other.
Many times crows will pick up baubles, trinkets, & small items only to become infected with the strange energies & occult radiations that infect these items. They become changed somehow by these elemental & dangerous occult forces. These crows gain a strange & almost demonic intelligence about them. Again & again they are drawn to the evil of the dungeon. These birds are sought & summoned by necromancers & other black wizards for their intellects & the strangeness of them.
Each of these 'changed' crows will have a human style intelligence score of three or better.


1d10 Random Dungeon Finds Dropped By The Crows Table

1. The mummified pinky finger of a dwarf with a 20 caret signet ring containing a hidden compartment containing a fabric map. 
2. A small silver holy symbol belonging to a priest of Lemuria a thousand years old. Worth 50 gold pieces because of the acid etched damage on one side. 
3. A silver medallion containing the soul of wizard that once belonged to a notorious lich king. His dungeon is said to be nearby and the crows his eyes . The medallion is curiosity worth 100 gold pieces to the right collector. 
4. A flawed diamond containing a deadly teleporation spell to a dead treasure world of the Eld. This item is cursed with a strange destiny about it.
5. A shiny golden key belonging to the minister of treasure vaults long dead two hundred years. A ghost follows this key throughout eternity. 
6. A small one inch high onyx cat that will animate in the hands of a pig farmer. The cat will lead the party to great dungeon location for a saucer of milk which it will demand telepathically. 
7. A fake wooden eye ball with a map of a nearby area drawn on its surface & circumference.
8. A small dime sized piece of white jade with twenty two sacred characters on it. These are said to be names of the twenty two most powerful fallen ghost kings of the damned. Their cemetery is supposedly nearby or within the region depending upon the rumors that the party listens to. 
9. A small amulet that once belonged to a priestess of Freya. The amulet will magically point to a true heir of a fallen kingdom. This fool can open the door to underground kingdom of the dead. 
10. The artificial nose of a priest of Odin; this item can literally smell gold within a thirty foot radius. It can also smell the blood of terrible warfare up to four miles away. The owner will be drawn into any intrigues of battle and power by this item. This nose can & will lead the owner to trouble every new moon unless a prayer to Odin is uttered. 

The Alpha Express Incident - An Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea & War Lords Of The Outer Worlds Crossover - Actual Play

“I was standing outside myself trying to stop those hangings with ghost fingers... I am a ghost wanting what every ghost wants-a body-after the Long Time moving through odorless alleys of space where no life is, only the colorless no smell of death...Nobody can breath and smell it through pink convolutions of gristle laced with crystal snot, time shit and black blood filters of flesh.”
― William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch

 Introduction


I'm just getting home now from Massachusetts, I met up with some friends and fellow players of mine this evening. This is a cross over event  with my regular Warlords of The Outer Worlds campaign setting. This picks up with my Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea players whom I haven't seen in some months. The last time we played the PC's had left Thule and were hot on the trail of some other dimensional raiders and had arrived upon a small planetoid in the WS system. They came upon some strange temple like ruins and some very nasty old 'friends'. A crew of German WWI undead soldiers from another zone were recovering something from the ruins. These guys are part of the dimensional raiders from a steampunk WWI  time trail that the PC's ran across. This time the guys had their wizards with them and after a lengthy melee and one character death the players managed to drive them off. 



And that's when things got weird, the PC's found out exactly what the soldiers were after. Inside a six foot wide hole in the floor of the temple was a ten foot deep pit that concealed a small fabric bound corpse. The corpse was bound tight with several hundred feet of rope. The PC's were never ones to play it safe  threw caution to the wind and cut the ropes entirely. And that's when he showed up.

My name is Morimolarcaba




The body was of some sort of weird mechanical boy like Golem dressed in tattered clothing. One of the party's fighters was poking it with his sword & making fun of it when it spring to life calling itself Morimolarcaba suddenly explaining it was of Atlantis manufacture and it was originally from a place known as Narcosa. The thing proceeded to inject the fighter with a who bunch of drugs from hidden needle like reserves. This android like life form teleported to another world after taunting the party that a cure might be found on Ugaehac another plane on the dimensional border with Narcosa.
The fighter made his saving throws so he was still alive but hallucinating so therefore out of commission. The clerics and wizards confirmed on going to Ugaehac. They knew there might be a cure in the other dimensional city. The last time the party had been there they had almost been killed by cultists and drained of their blood, and the chemicals in their brains for the manufacture of certain rare drugs.  The wizards and clerics used a scroll to open a dimensional gateway to  Ugaehac


Meanwhile Across The Dimensional Barrier

 A world away another party was dealing with the machinations of the Martians in full swing the with the other party and they came across a martian wizard in the ruins that they were exploring. The wizard didn't stay to engage the party and simply opened a dimensional bridge and fled the scene leaving the players completely dumb founded. They had to use a crystal egg to try and track its where abouts and they found him on Ugaehac


The party burned to a space warp spell scroll and made the jump over to Ugaehac. They had gone to the city on the edge of the plane of drugs to recover several powerful substances for a wizard in the wasteland in the recent past.
In The Streets of Ugaehac



“You were not there for the beginning. You will not be there for the end. Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative”
― William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch

The streets of the in-dimensional drug trading city were filled with thousands of aliens across the multiverse and the players split up to take advantage of the place. The smell of exotic spices, weird alien merchants, and the constant whine of commerce taking place on a scale that can hardly be imaged began to get to the PC's. The PC's went from one drug den and scale house to another looking for any sign of their respective quarries. They also began to do a bit of trading themselves watching out for any sign of danger of which there were plenty.

1d20 Random Encounters on the Streets of

Ugaehac Table

1. A merchant selling the black meat of the aquatic centipede and willing to trade information along with his drugs. Very well informed and yet not an agent. 
2. A group of insect like hive minded mutants on a mission for their god thing. They have several varieties of hallucinatory powders and  wares for sale. 
3. A vampire mutant junky looking for the next hit and victims, has the characteristics of a wight but better preserved. 
4. A merchant selling memory powder for a year of a PC's life and moments. 
5. A knife merchant who has swords for sale that can cut the cord of existence. He has other knives able to cut through thought and illusions. 
6. A Lovecraftian cult looking for victims for a sacrifice, they have very powerful substances that make the sacrifice seem like heaven on Earth. 
7. An energy being selling its service of raising cosmic consciousness by increasing the target's aura and being it into this level of reality 
8. A small sentient cut and shadow in reality that is offering the ultimate high for the right of the victim's soul. 
9. A powerful wizard whose selling his services to the highest bidder for certain substances of a weird nature. 
10. A gaggle of bully woogs who are a part of a cult of frog lickers. The cult is thriving
11. Recruits for a local cult of pain and pleasure seekers is looking to add your souls to their collective minds. They have several rare and dangerous artifacts for trade. 
12. A strange moth like being is ready to exchange information the trade for 1d20 years of life memories and experiences. 
13. An occult trader whose selling off nine instruments of black magick for one year of service and adventure. 
14. A wizard looking for adventurers to open up markets on Narcosa for him. 
15. The cultists of a goddess of twisted medicince  that is looking for recruits to help her to obtain the ultimate high. 
16. An alien wizard looking to trade his medicine and apothecary knowledge  for gold and the promise of adventure. 
17. An artifact trader looking to open up his current market by offering magical knowledge and the exchange of drugs from Narcosa. 
18. A skeleton man warrior from Carcosa on a quest to find his lost brothers before the serpent people reach him. 
19. A cult of 1d20 cultists who seek volunteers for a grand experiment to raise their souls up to Cthulhu for a transition into a higher realm. They are willing to trade minor items for sacrifice  victims.

Will the PC's collide in the streets of Ugaehac or become a part of its temptations and overwhelm themselves with the dangers of its streets? Tune in next week for more. Note that  Morimolarcaba was created using the robot rules and generators from the Alpha Blue rpg

Review & Commentary On The OSR Resource - The Dungeon Dozen For Your Old School Campaigns

GRAB IT RIGHT OVER
HERE

The Dungeon Dozen collects over 200 system-agnostic random tables designed to fire the imaginations of GMs and players of fantasy role-playing games, offering answers to such eternal questions as "What's in the Giant's Lunchbox" and "Why is there an Underworld". This book is loaded to the gills with black and white dungeon art by Chris Brandt, John Larrey, Stefan Poag, and Jason Sholtis. Each table in this PDF edition is bookmarked for ease of use

 So lately I've been doing a bit of DYI D&D of my own, and last night a review copy of The Dungeon Dozen showed up. Where do I begin with a mammoth two hundred and twenty-five page monster of a book containing every possible random dungeon and adventure design table you as a dungeon master will need.I'm late to the party of for the Dungeon Dozen by Jason Sholtis and reading through this book fills me with dungeon master angst. Its that good of a tool kit filled with wall to wall weirdness. This is the type of book that sort of forms the corner stone of the OSR. This book clocks in at two hundred and twenty five pages of sheer OSR lunacy. The book is part tool box, part random generator, and wall to wall creative generator that covers every possible mental exercise that a DM could possibly think of. Seriously this book is that well done.

The pdf is book marked and massive in its way dealing in table after table of random adventure generation. Taken on the whole and this book can be used to construct adventure encounter one shots and fully thought out adventures for a whole twenty years campaign.

There are tables literally on every page and there is art to go with each and everyone of those tables; art by Chris Brandt, John Larrey, Stefan Poag, and Jason Sholtis himself. The whole book is like some vomitous  mess of awesomeness but there's rhyme and reason for the material; used carefully and this is a massive adventure construction set of epic proportions. But its awesomeness is also its downfall, its hard to tell where one bit of awesomeness begins and another epic element crops up.

After a nerve wracking night of research and ruin through the Dungeon Dozen, I suspect that the book is simply the author's sheer insanity and creative output with his blog's output. The sheer amount of detail and tables is truly overwhelming and well worth the price of admission.  The spirit of the book is definitely old school and there is so much of it that it's awesome in its own way but let's say thank God for an index for this pdf. Had I this book when I was younger the players would have been paste in three rolls or less or mutated, or turned into any number of weird or strange results. Do I think that The Dungeon Dozen is worth your time and your efforts to purchase? In a word yes,there isn't a better resource for building your worlds, settings, adventures, adventure encounters treasures, underworld encounter, over arching mythology for a campaign full on hand tossing a roll of dice and getting on with your OSR campaigns.

Basically the Dungeon Dozen seems like a crazy, over the top OSR resource but it actually isn't. With a bit of restraint on the dungeon master's part this book makes an excellent system agnostic resource. A perfect blend of old school random chart excellence and adventure design madness. 


Actually Using The Dungeon Dozen In Designing

Your Old School Adventure or Campaign

All right after reading through the Dungeon Dozen more then three times over the past twenty four hours, I can safely come up with more then a few ways of actually using this product. There are two words that come to mind here, randomness and restraint. You as a dungeon master could take the book and a whole handful of dice and toss them then cherry pick what you want for a campaign and end up with a boat load of cool material to pick from. Or you've got to show yourself some real restraint and choose the category that you'll need for your campaign.

I've never even seen a game book that so closely fits the Dungeon Crawl Classics game like this one. Seriously you can end up with a handful of dice with everything your ever going to need for a DCC game in one book. Even though this book is marketed for the any OSR game system. This is the book to get for a DCC game campaign. I have never seen a book more ideal suited to the DCC ideal then The Dungeon Dozen. The book exudes in spades every gonzo and over the top sort of idea and echoing weirdness that a DCC DM could want. This is the same ideal that could easily echo its way to any gonzo DYI D&D style of campaign. I love, love, love the Dungeon Dozen for putting together a fast Saturday night get together or a convention set adventure. Its perfectly suited to keep players guessing and a DM with an imagination on the boil for old school play.