D20 Pirate Treasures (Low Fantasy Magical/Cursed Items)

 Here are some random artifacts for your crew to find in chests on half-sunken islands guarded by skeletons or anted up at the Liar's Dice table by that shifty looking dude. Since my Revenge campaign is semi-historical and low fantasy, a lot of these objects are moreso based on sailor's myths, sea shanties, and the like.

1. Satchel of Winds: Simple burlap bag tied with a blue ribbon. Used once to move ship 3 hexes instantly.

2. Skeleton Key: Brass key with a menacing skull face. Can be used to pick one lock.

3. Floating stones: Set of four pedi sry looking stones in a black velvet bag. If placed on an object underwater will allow it to float to the surface.

4. Sextant of True-Seeing: Solid gold instrument with an intricate design of a fish tailed unicorn on the side of it with three rings upon its back to hold the eyepiece steady. Sees things how they really are. +1 to Seafaring through fog.

5. Ship in a bottle: Just add water.

6. Wondrous Ram: wooden ram figurine with the words "Truth" and "Lie" carved into each side of it. Telling only truths turns it into an ordinary ram that will follow basic commands. Telling only lies turns it into a sloop. If the PC starts telling the opposite it'll turn back into a figurine.

7. Wisp's Lantern: soft glowing blue light illuminating from an ornate looking lantern. Glows brighter when enemies are near. Throwing the lantern creates an explosion of blue fire, dealing 3d6 damage.

8. Portrait of Orlando: A beautiful painting of someone of the opposite sex. Looking closer the features kind of resemble the  PC. If they die, the  PC is revived wherever the painting is kept but as the opposite sex. The painting will no longer have anyone in it.

9. Ethereal Mug: A stone tankard inscribed with glowing runes. Drinking a liquid from this mug allows the PC to become completely immaterial and immune from harm. However, in this ghostly form they cannot attack or pick things up.

10. Atlantean Tunic: Ancient scalemail shirt (+1 or 2 AC) that grants the wearer the ability to turn into a mermaid for 1d6 hours. Same abilities/drawbacks as mermaid class.

11. Voodoo Clay: Easily moldable earth found in a cloth pouch. It can be formed into 1 human-shaped figure that acts as a voodoo doll towards it victim. Can do damage but never kill.

12. Devil’s Fiddle: Playing this mahogany instrument cuts everyone’s Sorrow in half (rounded down) and gives +1 morale for Day. Crew will lose next battle. The devil himself will also be hunting it down. 

13. Stone Parrot: Ancient Aztec tape recorder. Parrot effigy carved out of granite with a button on the chest. Once pressed can recall up to one minute of noise. Cannot fly. 

14. Gold Statue of Famine: Solid gold statue of Aztec goddess with ruby eyes. Can be sold at a port for Insta-level up. First day on ship spoils all Provisions. Second day Munitions are ruined. Third day Wood is too damp to make repairs. Invites all manner of creatures and enemy ships to current hex.

15. Spyglass of the Eagle: Can roll Wis to scout out nearest Hex to the bow of the ship, previewing what encounter lies there. 

16. Poisoner’s Cabinet: 1d8 vials of various poisons: Knockout powder, Spider venom, Widow’s Woe, Madcap mushrooms, Beserk balm, Fighters Respite along with 1 Antidote.

17. Mask of Perfect Masquerade: instant disguise as a person you know that lasts an hour. 

18. Everlonging Perfume: use to Charm one person. 

19. Ishmael’s Incense: burning this incense at night gives the Whaler insight into where a nearby Adult or Monstorous whale is located. They get a +2 on attack’s against this whale 

20. Blarney Tankard: Automatically win CHA checks but extremely drunk, failing all DEX checks. Make a CON check before engaging in anything too crazy, fail and be violently ill the rest of the night

BONUS: Brawler's Bear: tattoo enchantment. Once per island, PC can challenge stranger to an unarmed brawl. The loser is compelled to give the winner one of their powerful belongings (roll Treasures for NPC). At 5th level, the PC also gains +1 to unarmed fighting. At 7th level, the winner loses half their Madness rounded down, loser gains that much.

Revenge: A Pirate RPG

The Golden Age of Piracy is one of my all time favorite historical eras. A couple of friends suggested I start running a pirate tabletop campaign for fun and my mind accidentally went haywire with ideas and this happened:

Hexmap of the Spanish Main. Islands are spaced further apart for more wild encounters.

 

In my game it is 1716, one year after the Wreck of the Spanish Treasure Fleet. Sailors from Cape Cod to London have heard of the tales of the immense amount of gold scattered on the sands of the Florida Keys, itching to be took. The bravest among them have abandoned being abused at sea by Spanish, French, or English captains for little to no pay in search of their own fortunes. More on this and how the supernatural effects this world a little later.

The character sheet

Like I said in a previous post, some of the mechanics are based on The Driftwood Verses, including Afflictions (like Sorrow and Doom) and Skills (like Seafaring and Reload). I took out the deathray style saves because I like using Abilities for that.

With Skills, I use Last Gasp's style of learning skills through usage, but only on the 2nd, 4th, and other even number levels they can roll to see if they gain another dot in that Skill. Players can also interact with NPCs that may know a thing or two about the Skill to gain tallies.

The ship sheet

Ships are almost characters themselves. There are three ship types: Sloop, Frigate, and Galleon, each with pros and cons in Cargo storage, Cannons firepower, and Speed. Combat works the same as Driftwood Verses with contesting Seafaring rolls to execute maneuvers. The Move maneuver uses Speed of the ship, which is based on Pirates of the Spanish Main's usage of measuring via Longways (L) or Shortways (S) of a playing card. I found this the easiest to translate since I use their minis for combat anyway.

Resources play a huge role in dictating what the players can/need to do. Using the Plunder System helps with randomizing loot for pillaged ships, but its always a risk because it may not carry what the players need. Each hex requires Provisions to travel to, Munitions to fight enemy ships or creatures, and Wood to recover from said battles. They can also find Treasures to trade in at outposts for gold/XP gain. This aspect of resource management really drives home that the PCs are scrappy survivalists and not just unstoppable forces at sea.

I will be posting some Session Notes from this in the near future as well as some tables I've made for pirate era Items, Wavecrawl Encounters, and Crew Morale. In the meantime if you are looking for similar inspiration checkout Zak's Wavecrawl post and Weird On the Waves which also have been a huge help. Cheers!

Map Of The Ol West

The year is 1903. The American Southwest is in decline. Civil War, economic hardship, and the constant struggle for survival drives its people into lives of ruthless desperation.

This is the county of Blair, a place crawling with bandits, charlatans, and cow rustlers. All cowards looking to become kings. But there are places the rotten men haven't touched. Unexplored crevasses and barren lands seeping tales of an old world beyond this one. A world that promises deadly secrets and safeguards them well. Just a taste of those strange powers could mean the difference between life or death in these desert wastes.

Do you have the iron to seek them out?

Random Encounters of The Weird West

A table I've been working on for my upcoming Weird West campaign.

This setting is much less undead gunslingers and steampunk scientists, and more fucked up Lovecraftian creatures with the locals trying to explain them with their own lore. (I'll explain some of The Weird later.) In a perfect world it would have art by Ben Templesmith and be narrated by Tom Waits.

Both positive and negative events are found here. I'll update the list as time goes on as well.

William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield

Weird West Encounters (Roll 1d10)

1.     Ambush! (Roll 1d4)

1. 1d6 bandits attack your posse

2. 1d4 criminals holding up/attacking another caravan

3. Grand theft stallion/stagecoach

4. Trap! Dynamite explodes/a line of gunpowder ignites in front of you. Horses buck you off, rocks tumble, gunfire in every direction.

2.     Flannel Mouths and Friendly Faces (Roll 1d4)

1.   Farmer’s cart broke a wheel. They’ll offer you some food if you help fix it in time for them to make it to the next town.

2.   Gun merchant offers their wares.

3.   Salesman driving a carriage full of “Miracle Elixir.” Roll on the Elixirs chart (or any ol’ Random Potion chart) for the kind. 50% chance its snake oil.

4.   Banished benevolent witch offers to sell or trade their trinkets and ritual components to travelers.

3.     Docile Animals (Roll 1d4)

       1. 1d6 whitetail deer

2. An armadillo

3. 1d4 rabbits

4. A raccoon

4.     Unfriendly Animals (Roll 1d6)

1.   1d6 bighorn sheep

2.   1d4 hawks

3.   1d12 buffalo

4.   1d12 elk

5.   1d4 vultures

6.   1d4 foxes

5.     Violent Animals (Roll 1d8)

1.   Bear

2.   Bobcat

3.   Cougar

4.   1d8 coyotes

5.   1d4 wild boar

6.   1d6 rattlesnakes

7.   1d6 wolves

8.   1d12 scorpions

6.     Frontiersmen (Roll 1d4)

1.   Hunter offers a bet to kill 1d6 animals. (5-6 Docile, 4-3 Unfriendly, 2-1 Violent) Roll on the respective table for the result.

2.   Trapper offers a bet to capture 1d4 Docile Animals. They also sell traps at a modest price.

3.   Herbalist is looking for certain specimens in the wild. They offer payment if the posse can return with them.

4.   Explorers returning with artifacts from caves not far off. They won’t sell their finds for cheap, but they might be willing to part with the map for less.

7.       Escort Mission (Roll 1d4)

1.   Help a sheriff escort an unruly criminal to the nearest town for part of the reward money.

2.   Bring stranded travelers to the nearest town. They can reward mundane items or a monetary complement.

3.   Supply cart upturned, they need to make the delivery to the next town before sundown. They promise either some of their goods or part of the payment for the job. Roll 1d6 for kind of supplies.

1.  Food (meat, vegetables, etc)

2.  Medicine

3.  Ore (coal, silver, copper, etc)

4.  Dynamite

5.  Sugar/Spices

6.  Alcohol

                  4. Traveler claims to be attacked by…things. Get them to town in 1 hour before they turn or things could get ugly.

8.       Duel. Depending on the PC’s Fame/Infamy someone will challenge one of them to a duel. The enemy has the same Dex bonus as the PC’s Fame/Infamy.

9.       Camp.  (Roll 1d4) 50% chance of being attacked in the night by bandits/Violent Animals/The Weird. Roll 1d6 to see how your hosts fare against them. Rolling under and they vanquish the foes, above means you awaken to their screams as the last of them is killed.

1.     Moonshiners drunk on their product have plenty to share, but good luck having their help in a fight. 1 in 6 defense.

2.     Surveyors packing up their measuring rods and maps offer comfort and stories of their explorations under the stars. They pack little weaponry but offer a fine meal of roast mutton to travelers. 2 in 6 defense.

3.     A traveling vaudeville circus offers entertainment and jokes to make the night in the desert a little easier. The food is questionable, but there’s plenty of whiskey to go around. 40% chance they’ll try to steal from the players, either through pickpocketing them while they’re drunk or waiting until they’re all asleep. 3 in 6 defense.

4.     Prospectors’ camp. Weary from a hard day of mining/sifting the river, they’ll offer you mild protection from the night and some lukewarm gruel. 20% chance they struck it rich and will offer more appealing venison stew to eat, but they’ll be paranoid and wary about their new visitors and are prone to kick them out just for looking at them funny. 4 in 6 defense.

5.     US Soldiers set up camp for the night. They’re armed with high-powered repeating rifles, but the any infamous party members aren’t welcome here. 5 in 6 defense.

6.     Hunters of The Weird prepare for war. Their camp affixed with all sorts of wards and luck talismans dangling from tents. Grizzled clergymen offer no solace but their blades and rifles as they snuff out the light and ready to fight the terrors. Players wishing to stay here must swear an oath to their god and perform an initiation ritual. 6 in 6 defense.

10.      The Weird (Roll 1d6)

1.     1d4 devotees of Ithaqua. 1 in 6 chance each could be fully turned Wendigo.   

Wild folk who believe in “Donner’s Promise,” knowingly or unknowingly give devotion to the Old One Ithaqua, and participate in cannibalism in order to obtain protection through the winter months and power over others. Practitioners take on monstrous features and after a year of practice they are unrecognizable from the humans they once were. The Navajo call the fully turned Wendigos. When a Wendigo is slain, it bursts into a swarm of mosquitos before perishing completely.

2.     Skinwalker. Roll again on encounters. One of the people/creatures in the encounter is a skinwalker and will attack when given the chance. At less than half health, the skinwalker sheds their false hide and their true form spills out.

Some magic practitioners have learned how to take the form of any person or animal by ritually killing them and wearing their skin. In this form, they act as the creature until mortally wounded and they are forced to emerge from the hide. Skinwalkers often use scarification and mark their own flesh with wicked hexes that immobilize their victims.

3.     Chupacabra

Utterly furless, muscular wolf-like creatures with slits for eyes and grey spines upon their backs seek nothing more than to drink the blood of its victims.

4.     Black Goat Initiate

Those who believe that reality is but a veil and that true pleasure lies beyond worship The Black Goat and find solace in the northern woods. Some use hallucinogenics to pierce the veil; others study the brains of their lobotomized victims. The magic they use is potent and dangerous, and without any empathy for other beings or themselves they are prone to use catastrophic spells or even dynamite to get closer to understanding the other side.

5.     Mound Beast. (based on the creatures from H.P. Lovecraft’s The Mound.)

Massive, grotesque humanoid creatures described by people who spot them as “ogres.” They tend to dwell near native burial mounds and are highly territorial. The Mound Beasts are capable of ripping victims in half and devouring their intestines. Others have spotted them eating fistfuls of rattlesnakes. Some believe they are semi-sentient and live beneath the burial sites in some sort of civilization that settled here before any humans did.

6.     1d6 Sand Mites. On a crit, Save versus Poison or the mite decapitates you and empties their fresh eggs into your body. In 1d4 turns the eggs hatch, spilling out 1d12 baby mites.

Vicious deer ticks the size of dogs that burrow in the sand and are capable of decapitating unfortunate travelers with their mandibles and laying eggs in their carcasses. The eggs hatch quickly in moist environments, which make wet sand or the flesh of victims the perfect nest.

Occupational Hazards

In a land riddled with disease, violence, and social constructs, not everyone's born a wealthy noble or are appointed a knight or have the privilege to enroll in a mountaintop school of magic, so why should your characters?

The low and middle class are likely where you're gonna start.  Roll a d100 and get a job, hippie (Although "Ruler" is in there, but it's only a 1% chance you'll get it. Fucking classism.)

"Well shit, I got Barrel-maker, but my stats are that of a Magic-User." 
Calm yourself, child. There's aspects of magic and alchemy seeped into the cracks of even the most mundane occupations. 

I usually play games where magic is relatively dangerous to dabble in and has adverse effects on its users. (LotFP does a great job with this.) This makes it a challenge to those brave or foolish enough to seek out the powers from beyond. That being said, the first tasks a new occultist would most likely try to achieve would be making their career a little easier.

Re-skinning and coming up with spells for random medieval jobs is daunting, so I'm going to start a series of posts that have examples to get those thoughts cookin'.

Let's take a look at the Dentist, also known in the 1300's as the Laybarber. Not only did these folk cut your hair, they were questionably skilled in oral operations.

Check out that cauldron in the back and the string of teeth. 

Dentists were certainly dabbling in the Dark Arts back in the day. 

From Jost Amman's Book of Trades.

Dentists and other medical practitioners of the time relied on herbal medicine and rituals to drive away pain and discomfort. The Ancient Sumerians believed that tooth decay was due to small worms hiding in between your teeth and used candles made of sheep's fat to try and burn them out. Ouch.

Maybe your aspiring barber surgeon chose to perfect their craft with more powerful magic after singeing too many mouths. If they're lucky, they may have stumbled upon this pamphlet after perusing a hole-in-the-wall bookstore down a dark alley.

The Practiced Lay Barber’s Extraction Handbook by Leeland Penderson

Farmer At The Dentist by Johann Liss

 Leeland was an experienced lay barber trusted by nobles for pulling all of their sugar-incrusted, rotted teeth and providing them with the most stylish pearly-whites that silver could buy. In order to make the perfect dentures, however, he needed teeth. He obtained them by sneaking into peasants’ homes and extracting them while they sleep. Leeland perfected a spell in order to get the most teeth with the least resistance from the “patient.” He was caught forcing the teeth out of a boy who was distantly related to the constable and was charged with malpractice. Leeland spent 5 years in the dungeons before becoming a filthy street rat.

Amongst the scientific diagrams of the jaw and the short catalog of straight razors, there lie sigils for luck in hair cutting and wards for keeping "tooth worms" away, as well as several spells:

Oral Abscission

Magic-User Level 1

Casting time: 1 round

Range: 30’

Target: 1 being

After the lay barber has properly prepared themselves for surgery, this spell is cast in order to make full teeth removal a speedy operation. The patient’s gums will swell at a rapid rate, during which the teeth will begin to fall out. Patients that struggle from the process (make a Save versus Magic) may experience a sharp pain (1d4 of damage) and minor bleeding. The patient will not be able to speak for the rest of the day following the operation due to the inflammation of the gums.

Using this mindset could also be helpful for creating/re-skinning spells and making backstories for DCC (Dungeon Crawl Classics), where level-0 characters are often merchants or craftsman when they start adventuring. Just because they read from some mystical skull that gave them the power to ignite the air around them doesn't mean they won't use the ability to burn down homes in the night only to offer to rebuild them for a pretty penny by day.