Elemental Reductions

I spent too long looking trying to generate a random horse system.  After taking a break from it, I thought about how to handle dogs (war, riding, hunting, and tracking), guard geese, hawks, elephants, and riding apes.  I decided I wasn't smart enough to get too into the weeds with them, and came up with this far simpler method to introduce variety to all kinds of adventurer's animal accomplices.  Basically, just use these to put more of an emphasis on animals, and further differentiate them from each other. Pets & Service Animals This is for every kind of animal, from mounts to combat animals to familiars. Tricks "Unintelligent" animals (those with 1 or 2 intelligence, if it's quantified at all) can learn 2 tricks, smart animals learn 4.  They are triggered by a visual signal or a sound.   Trained animals are worth 25% more per trick they know.  If in doubt, assume an animal knows the tricks for the things it already does regularly.   Each t...

My last entry for Purple OSR Discord's Secret Santicorn is footie Domopunk. I wrote this on my phone during holidays with the family. I'll probably edit this at a later date. Apologies for more than the usual editing errors.  Prompt : Mundane objects that are portals to different worlds.  Portable Brass Forge : This brass forge has an inscription on its top in the genie script: Use for a day risks sympathetic manifold tesseraction. This forge heats steel and iron as though they were brass,  allowing forging and metal work at cooler temperatures and for less fuel. Items forge this way count as being forged 1d6x5% faster.   On a six,  the smith can instead get a magical +1 item, if they give up 1 point of constitution and one point of wisdom for months.  It still requires someone to work the bellows, and still requires an anvil for smithing.  Anyone within 35 ft. of the forge for 8 hours has a 1-in-3 chance of getting teleported as a group to a similar f...

I wrote this up for Secret Santicorn for Khajeet, whose original gift giver had to bow out.  Merry Hannukwanzimas, Khajeet!   Fafhrd was a barbarian from the cold north.  I only recall the vaguest bits of those books, but between that and having snow and ice at home four months of the year, here are some reforgings of those thoughts. Cold Environments When your party is venturing through temperatures around -20°C (that’s -4F°), even hiking in armor isn’t going to get you through those freezing nights.  The party’s going to need some really good gear.   Winged flyers, usually limited in load, do very poorly in these environments if they aren’t similar to their home terrain, because they can’t carry the load of insulating clothes. Survival Gear Clothes Sleeping Gear Effect Full Snow Gear (20 gp): waterproof boots, overcoat, cape, and cap if fully armored, add leggings and a tunic if not, and mitts, all insulated.  Outfits for people from such environment...