Dragons for You, Not Me

Bastionland is essentially built on a single infinite dungeon, but Dragons have never been a part of it.

In Electric Bastionland there's the implication that some alien beings have settled in Deep Country as petty gods or monsters of legend, but I don't think I'd ever put a straight up Dragon into that slot.

Which is a shame, because Dragons embody a lot of what makes for a great fight.

• Mobility: Usually flight.
• Ability to take on groups: Multiple melee attacks and an area-effect breath weapon.
• Environmental links: Even the standard D&D colours mostly have something that takes them beyond being a big dumb monster disconnected from its surroundings.

Roll d6 three times to get a Dragon that might not make much sense in Bastionland. Assign it an Environment based on where you need it to be. Mountaintop, dungeon, jungle, ocean, they all work. 

Basic Dragon Template

STR 18, 15hp, Armour 2. 

Claws and Tail (d10, targets all surrounding opponents) or Bite (d12). 

Mobility

1. Glide on giant bat wings, but can only crawl clumsily on land.
2. Burrow through ground like a landshark.
3. Slither into shadows, popping out from any other shadow large enough.
4. Charge around like a juggernaut, smashing through anything.
5. Float gracefully through the air with perfect control.
6. Climb and leap great distances.

Breath Weapon

1. FIRE but roll again because that's not enough.
1. Green fire that can be manipulated into shapes and illusions.
2. Black fire that only harms living matter.
3. Blue fire that holds you in place while it burns you (STR Save to escape)
4. Pink fire that sticks to you and cannot be extinguished unless the dragon wills it. 
5. White fire that only burns non-living matter.
6. Golden fire that causes all the pain of burning, but no physical damage.
2. Choking smoke that makes the air unbreathable. Lost d6 STR each turn you stay in.
3. Clouds that stick around and flash with lightning (d10, ignore Armour)
4. Dirt, mountains of it. No damage but you're buried.
5. Sonic blasts that throw things away (d8 damage) and shatter hard objects. 
6. Lava that pools around (d12 damage)

Environmental Link

1. Animates the bulk matter of its environment into animated servitors. 
2. Devours its environment, always seeking its next home. 
3. Literally made out of its environment, born out of nature as its avatar.  
4. Trapped in it. Everything about its environment will fight to keep the dragon there. 
5. Worships it, despite its indifference, and fiercely fights any perceived threat. 
6. It was all created by the dragon. In addition to its normal breath it can conjure up whatever matter is needed to make more of its environment.

A Player's Handbook

A brief player's strategy guide for Into the Odd, specifically Electric Bastionland.

Welcome to Electric Bastionland.

Your Character
Ability scores are secondary to your choices. A good player with an awful character will succeed more often than a poor player with a great character.

Your character will have certain things to work with. They might not even appear as obvious strengths, but they're your tools to make the most of. If you rolled a character with a knack for impersonations and a bucket of glue, start thinking of how you can put them to use.

Exploring
While exploring a dangerous environment, the most important tool you have is Asking Questions. Using this tool well is the key to survival and finding Treasure.

When the Referee describes something to you, it's safe to assume that there is more useful information waiting to be found. Ask specific questions to try and get to information you need.

Sooner or later you'll hit an obstacle that stands between you and the Treasure you crave.

Talking
If it's an option, talking your way through an obstacle is usually the safest option. Use the conversation as a means to mine the non-player character for information, find out how you can help each other, and potentially identify weaknesses for if things turn sour.

Sneaking
If you can't talk your way past, sneaking or other ways of bypassing the obstacle are a good second choice. You might need to distract watching eyes, steal a key, or come back later, but you might not have to even draw your sword if you plan things correctly.

Fighting
Combat is always a choice, and if you want to survive it will usually be your last-choice.

If you have the choice whether or not to initiate combat, consider whether the reward outweighs the the risk. Even if the combat was thrust upon you, there is rarely a necessity to fight to the death.

If you're determined to go through with a combat, you can make sure it's on your terms by:

• Gathering as much information on your opponent as possible, ensuring you aren't underestimating them.
• Gain the numerical advantage by isolating a target, or dividing large groups, while ensuring you have as many allies as possible.
• Seize the initiative by striking first or from a position where the opponent cannot easily fight back.
• Focus on the actual objective of the combat. Are you just trying to drive a target away, steal something from them, or do they absolutely have to die? Once that objective is complete, you might be best off withdrawing.

Weapons
Understanding the different weapons at your disposal will help you weigh up your chances of victory.

Don't underestimate the difference between d6 and d8 damage. Stepping up the die by one size is roughly equivalent to getting +1 to your roll. If you add in multiple allies attacking the same target over multiple rounds then the difference is even more significant.

Ranged Weapons are ideal if you can keep your target at a distance, but you can find yourself in trouble if your opponent engages you in melee and all you have is a rifle.

Blast weapons are incredibly potent, able to take out multiple opponents in a way that normal weapons simply cannot. It's expensive to get a Blast weapon you can use regularly, but Bombs are useful to keep for the times you really need them. Use them as often as you can and watch out for opponents using them.

The best weapon you can use is one that bypasses the combat entirely. Poison their water, set fires, or trap them in cave-ins.

Armour
Wearing Armour 1 is roughly equivalent to reducing your attacker's damage by one die type (ie d8 to d6). There's very little argument against wearing Armour if you can afford it!

Risk vs Reward
The Treasure you're currently looking for isn't the only Treasure in the world. Is it really worth this level of risk? Remember, heading in a different direction is always an option. Or maybe you can just try an entirely different approach. Get a loan and hire some help? Come at the Treasure from another direction? Create a forgery?

The Core of the Game
Remember that there is a three-part sequence at the heart of the game.

INFORMATION: Gather as much of it as you can. Always be asking questions.

CHOICE: Remember there are always more options than are immediately apparrent.

CONSEQUENCES: After you've made your choice, make the most of the consequences.

Good luck!

34 Good Traps

My measure of a good trap:

At least one part of it is immediately visible. 

It allows interaction and investigation.

it has impactful consequences for the victim. 

I've gone on before about the three pillars of running a good game (Information, Choice, Consequences) and you'll notice they match up with these three points.

In short, your trap should have room for interesting interaction between "oh, a trap!" and "I'm dead". The trap doesn't have to announce itself immediately, it can even "trap" the players before announcing itself as long as there's still room for interaction beyond that.

You can break the rules if it's connected to the theme of your specific scenario. Like your Tomb of Horrors style deathtrap dungeon might be full of hidden traps that don't announce themselves, but you're breaking that rule as a specific exception for this particular dungeon. If you're going to do this, make sure the payoff is worth breaking the rule for.

Context is also important. You don't just stick a trap in a corridor and call it a day. Connect the trap to its location, most typically a passageway to somewhere desirable, a piece of treasure, or link it in with a monster. You wouldn't just drop a monster into an empty room, so give trap placement the same level of consideration.

I blur the line between Puzzles and Traps a lot, but here I'm sticking to things that are placed deliberately to impair intruders, with nasty consequences.

So here are 34 good, simple traps. Some classics that meet the benchmark, some new stuff I just made up, some lodged in my brain but originally stolen. 

1. Open pit onto deadly spikes. Both sides of the pit are sloped into it and greased up.
2. Concealed pit into piranha-filled water.
3. Metal sword audibly humming, hooked up to electric charge.
4. Green Devil Face with gaping mouth. Anything going into the mouth is annihilated. 
5. A fishing rod propped up and cast into a lake. The rod is covered in fast-acting glue and tension on the line triggers a springboard beneath the victim, casting them into the lake.
6. A column of light. When a being enters they are frozen, and an evil duplicate of them is conjured. The victim is only freed when the duplicate is killed.
7. Walls dotted with arrow-slots. Any movement in front of them fires the arrow, but each hole only has one arrow.
8. Upside-down spiked pit on the ceiling. Gravity is reversed under the pit. 
9. Clusters of bright orange fungus growing on one or more corpses. Any disturbance triggers a deadly spore explosion. 
10. Glass vials of green slime hung from a ceiling, a guard with a crossbow watching from behind a barricade.
11. Two panes of glass blocking passage, filled with deadly bugs. 
12. Shimmering, thick air that slows all movement down to a quarter of normal. Guards with missile weapons waiting around the corner.
13. Glossy, friction-less floor and spiked walls.
14. A metal room filled with crushed remains, visible moving parts to floor, and a sealed door leading forward. Two buttons. One opens the door, the other seals all doors and commences the crushing process.
15. A peephole blocked up with glass fragments. Breaking the fragments releases a toxic gas.
16. Giant chomping blade that must be passed through to progress. Visible pressure plate on either side. Blades are triggered when a pressure plate is released, unless the other plate is also depressed. Going slow poses no risk. 
17. Stuck door with a gold snake-head handle. The handle will bite and poison anybody putting their hand near, unless they slip a coin into its mouth, allowing safe passage through the door.
18. Disguised springboard, launching the victim straight up into the air. There is a hanging bar they can grab to avoid the fall, but weight on the bar triggers the release of giant spiders onto it, and rained down onto anyone below.
19. Room dusted with a deadly white powder. Any rapid movement disturbs the powder, sending it into the air and then the lungs of anybody breathing nearby. Hidden pressure plate in the center of the room triggers a loud siren, alerting any nearby threats.
20. Locked door, key visible in a stinky fountain. The liquid is fast-acting acid, the key made from a special resistant ceramic.
21. Rope bridge primed to split in the middle when the majority of the crossing weight has passed the mid-point. The characters can grab their half of the bridge and climb back up easily enough.
22. Damp, underwater tunnel with glowing treasure at a visible dead end. A pressure plate halfway through triggers flooding of the tunnel. A normal human could get back to the tunnel exit with breath to spare, but not if they try to grab the treasure first. 
23. Two doors in sequence. First sprays anybody passing through with highly flammable liquid. Second spits out a flash of flame, harmless on its own but enough to ignite the liquid.
24. Sloped walkway in a freezing cold room. Pressure plate halfway up releases a flood of water down the slope, freezing near instantly. 
25. Haunted pots, audible screaming within, placed on wobbly plinths on an uneven floor. Any sort of weight on the floor is sure to release at least one angry wraith.
26. Pool of lava, a metal idol partially submerged in the center. It's glowing hot, but valuable.
27. Big metal skull with a gem in its open, toothy mouth. Obviously it bites anything put inside.
28. Quicksand, just like in cartoons. 
29. Giant spider lair, huge boulders suspended in the highest webs. Too much disturbance might release a boulder, fire will definitely release them all.
30. Bear trap.
31. Sealed door with two identical handles on the adjacent wall. One releases snakes from above, the other opens the door. 
32. Hidden jet spraying you with disgusting smelling liquid. Not harmful in itself, but might attract scent-based creatures or warn inhabitants that you've been poking around where you shouldn't have.
33. Pressure plate triggers part of the floor to move down, slowly transporting the victim into the now-visible lair of a horrible monster. 
34. Giant cauldron filled with treasure. Any weight added to the cauldron causes the lid to slam shut and a fire to spark to life underneath it.

Expose your Prep

You've probably heard the phrase "attack every part of the character sheet" from Arnold K. Let's flip that and see how the players can capitalise on every bit of your prep.

I find that the crime of giving too much information is minor in comparison to the heinous crime of giving too little information. I lead with a good chunk of info, give good answers to good questions, and I want to give even more if the players are crafty.

So what should you do to reward these exceptional player actions?

Expose the Map
I like giving the group a blank map anyway. For the most part I don't consider mapping a strong part of the challenge of my games, so I'd rather the players be tested other ways. It cuts down on a lot of time spent describing the spatial relationship between doors or sketching out rough drawings on paper.

But if the players find somebody that knows their stuff, let them have a partial or full map! If your environments are so lame that having the map negates all challenge then it's time to crank up your adventure location design.

Expose the NPCs
If they go to the effort of finding out about an NPC before engaging them, let them see their info. Show them the HP, their moves, their relationships with other NPCs.

Expose the Future
Somebody has probably worked out what's most likely to happen if the players do nothing. If they do their research then show them that timeline you've planned out. Of course, it takes a lot of time to get to that point...

Expose the Tables
Switched-on locals know the encounter table of their area. Of course there's a 50% chance of a rabid cat attack here, that's just how we live. The blister beast? Oh that thing doesn't come around all that often.

Expose the Mechanics
You're going to be making rulings when you run Into the Odd. Be transparent about it, and reward information gathering with full access to the sub-system you've thrown together for conker games or debate contests.

Abominations

ABOMINATIONS

• They are made unique, not born. 
• They attract attention. 
• There’s always a compelling set of reasons to see them destroyed. 

MAKING A MONSTER

• Every abomination started out as something more mundane. 
• Their origin could have been through design, accident, or their own action. 
• Wherever they are, their surroundings become more monstrous in turn. 

UNIQUE BEINGS

• There’s nothing quite like them, and they’re instantly recognisable as monstrous. 
• They seek places where they can stay solitary but are often drawn to others by a need or curiosity. 
• Nobody knows exactly what they are. 

HUNTERS AND FOLLOWERS

• There’s always somebody that wants it dead. 
• There’s always somebody fascinated by it. 
• These are as likely to be people, animal, machine, alien, or mockery. 

TEMPLATES

Man-Monster:  STR 10, DEX 10, CHA 5, 5hp. 

d8 Club.

• Try to observe normality from a distance. 
• Decorate its disgusting lair. 
• Make things worse for everybody. 

Skulking-Horror: STR 10, DEX 18, CHA 5, 8hp

Four d6 tendrils.

• Assume the worst of anyone they meet. 
• Covet the belongings of others. 
• Give in to Envy.

Giant-Creature: STR 18, DEX 5, CHA 5, 15hp. 

Armour 3, Two d8 Claws and one d10 Bite.

• Try to scare others away. 
• Lash out in anger. 
• Move to a new home once discovered.

SPARKS (Roll 2d20 and Combine)

d20	Origin	Modifier
1	Human (Bastion)	Human Science
2	Human (Country)	Alien Science
3	Mammal (small)	Machine Science
4	Mammal (large)	Mock Science
5	Fish	Urban Religion
6	Reptile	Country Religion
7	Bird	Alien Religion
8	Insect	Alien Environment
9	Tree	Underground Warping
10	Fungus	Time Dilation
11	Invertebrate	Industrial Accident
12	Multiple People	Another Monstrosity
13	Artwork	Selective-Breeding
14	Alien (humanoid)	Weaponisation
15	Alien (beastly)	Chemical Exposure
16	Machine (mobile)	Union Ritual
17	Machine (structural)	An Ancient Oddity
18	Mockery (person)	Failed Medicine/Repair
19	Mockery (beast)	Weird Comet
20	Mockery (critter)	Attempted Destruction

SPARKS (Roll 2d20 and Combine)

d20	Theme	Danger
1	Hunger	Organised Cult of Followers
2	Death	Dangerous Animals
3	Greed	Twisted Creatures
4	Destruction	Space Manipulation
5	Gluttony	Time Manipulation
6	Stupidity	Reality Manipulation
7	Rage	Collection of Oddities
8	Knowledge	Strange Charisma
9	Ambition	Mind Control
10	Sloth	Corrupting Presence
11	Envy	Destructive Abilities
12	Purity	Colossal Size
13	Lust	Manipulate Objects
14	Chaos	Manipulate Flesh
15	Fear	Weaponises Environment
16	Amorality	Creates Oddities
17	Pride	Creates Monstrosities
18	Hedonism	Mystic Abilities
19	Vanity	Vast Intelligence
20	Obedience	Physical Power

Odd Remedies

Pills, Oils, and Vapo-Rubs are big business in Bastion.

While there's a lot of sugar and brick-dust being sold, some of those chemists are actually onto something.

These are all experimental, so you can get them for free if you're happy to have someone in goggles observe your response to the dosage, and sign a standard waver of course.

Roll d12
1: Buff Spray - Applied rectally, feels ice cold.
- Restores STR
- 50% chance to lose all of your teeth with each use.

2: Cadaver Wax - Applied to skin, smells like corpses.
- Restores DEX
- 50% chance that the smell never fades.

3: Gudgeon-Snuff - Taken nasally, leaves a yellow patch around your nose.
- Restores CHA
- 50% chance that the nose stain is permanent.

4: Amoeba Essence - Taken intravenously.
- Restores all Abilities.
- 50% chance that you become dependent with each use. While dependent you are Deprived on any given day when you haven't had a hit.

5: Jazz Butter - Must be dissolved into a hot bath and soaked in for an hour. Smells sweaty.
- You can sprint as quickly as the fastest humans for the rest of today.
- 50% chance that your feet are incredibly slippery for the rest of the day, making barefoot walking impossible.

6: Brittle Green - Spread onto the stump as a goo which hardens. Smells like bad limes.
- One lost limb will grow back slowly over a week.
- 50% chance that the limb is a gross lizard limb.

7: Reality Drops - Tiny black capsule taken orally.
- Restore a lost sense.
- 50% chance to lose another sense.

8: Blood Buddies - Small red blob of flesh, rubbed into chest.
- Gain d6 temporary HP. Use them before your own hp and once they're gone they're lost forever.
- 50% chance that your body rejects the buddy and it forms into a small angry fleshling (3hp, d6 bite).

9: Goodnight Kiss - White powder applied to forehead.
- Restore the recently dead to life for a few moments.
- 50% chance that they explode messily on their second death.

10: Satchdragon Root - Spicy piece of bark to be brewed with hot water.
- Create a cool, collected demeanor for the next hour.
- 50% chance that the hour ends with uncontrollable outbursts of swearing and truth-bombs.

11: Digger's Spritz - Fizzy drink, actually delicious.
- Instantly cure any sort of stomach illness.
- 50% chance to immediately vomit explosively.

12: Mystiquerol - Syrup taken into ear.
- Instantly cure any sort of nervous condition.
- 50% chance that you develop a foreign accent.

Small Tables

Sometimes you need to put something together for a game tonight and none of the modules on your shelf feel like the right fit. Throwing together a Route Map is relatively fast, but you're also going to want some random tables, most obviously some Encounters.

I've gone from using d20 to d6 and everything in between. My list of needs for a random encounter table is:

• Make an area feel alive and non-static.
• Project the character of an area.
• Have at least one really dangerous entry to encourage the players to keep moving. 
• Be better than something I can just make up on the fly.

I like d20s for things like Spark Tables where you want to generate a number of unique results, but for Encounter tables I'm moving closer to the following model.

Roll d6
1-3: Common. Three variations on a single encounter either carrying out different actions or varying slightly in composition.
4-5: Uncommon. Two variations of a more unusual encounter, again varying in behaviour or composition.
6: Rare. Something weird and likely dangerous. 

Now you can really dig down into making six great entries, rather than spending your whole prep time filling up a d20 table with just-okay entries.

Let's do some examples.

The Yelling Mountain: A little piece of Hell in coldest Deep Country.

Roll d6

1. 4 Coil Men (5hp, Electric Stave d8, long-chinned mask) parading their wealth boastfully (three multi-coloured gems worth £20 each, one smaller one worth £10). One is carrying a device wired up to the gems that can cause them to expode (d10 blast) at the push of a button. He'd rather die in the blast than let you steal his wealth. 
2. 10 Coil Men (as above) on the trail of somebody wealthier than you, hoping to rob them.
3. 1 Coil Man (as above, name is Julio) separated from his group and starting to doubt that a life of robbery and boasting is as rewarding as he'd hoped. 
4. Jaw-Goat (6hp, d6 Butt, Painfully Itchy Pelt, Ice Cold Horns, both effects increase after death) gathering bones for its nest. Not so interested in your bones.
5. 6 Young Jaw Goats (4hp, then as above) butting each other and trying to establish a social hierarchy. 
6. Hand of the Mountain (15hp, Armour 2, d10 Smash) Here to reclaim anything mineral for the mountain. Appears out of the Earth and returns back to it if you cross water or a canyon.