Some Thoughts on Triple Stating Some Unique Creatures for S&W, T&T and FAL

Art By Nicole Cardiff

So, one of the Milestones for The Tavern's Patreon support was to provide new creatures for use with Swords & Wizardry, Tunnels & Trolls and Far Away Land that I would post for all here at The Tavern. I figured it would take months to hit the $100 a month milestone. We hit it in 12 hrs.

Art by Malcolm McClinton

I owe The Tavern Community at least four creatures a month and I figured I'd get a bit of a head start by digging through my stock art collection. Yes, I know I'm not a publisher, but I've bought a ton of stock art over the years with the idea that, at some point, I'd have a use for it.

Surprise, I have a use for it ;)

Art by Jeff Ward

My thought is to reimagine the creatures from a Far Away Land perspective and then rework them back to Swords and Wizardry and Tunnels & Trolls.

Art by Eric Quigley

You know I had to include an +Eric Quigley piece in the first batch ;)

Alright, these are the pieces I've chosen to brainstorm with. Wish me luck...

Time to Brainstorm an Overall Post Title For a Series of Posts that Serve as Follow Ups and Expansions to Brainstorm Podcast Episodes

Damn, that is a horribly long post title, aint it?

This morning I made a post that followed up on and expanded upon the episode of The Brainstorm Podcast that was released last night. The post has been fairly well received and I enjoyed writing it so I'd like to make it an ongoing series of post. So, we need a label. Or a theme.

I've come up with Brain Drippings and Late Thoughts. Not sure if either really hits the bell.

Here's what I'm doing.

Open call.

Give me some ideas as comments to this post. If I decide to go with one of the suggestions, I'll send the commenter in question a $10 RPGNow Gift Certificate. If I choose none of the suggestions, I keep the GC - so make some good suggestions ;)

I'll leave this open until 6PM tomorrow night (Dec 14th)

Yes, you can make more than one suggestion...

Now I Have the Wife Brainstorming for Me!

It was bound to happen.  We were driving earlier today and she started throwing (figuratively speaking of course) some things that she thought were ageless children's toys (to go along with my current unofficial theme of magic items based off of children's toys).  I had to tell her that the "pop up" dice roller from Trouble and a Slinkey probably weren't "timeless" in the sense I was looking for.

She did throw "Jacks" and a "Boomerang" in my direction, so i am grateful. ;)

I think I've written (or started to write) about a dozen items so far.  I'll see how far this them can take us.  I may drop one or two into the ACKS game tonight, although it probably won't include the Beer Bear from last night (I just had a Blueberry Ale from Blue Point Brewery - mmmmm!  bears would like this :)

So, if you want to throw some toys into the fire feel free.  Just the toy, mind you, not what it does.  I need to let my mind go off on it's own tangents without previous direction with this project.  Besides, it's more fun (and generally weirder too).

Thaumaturgy Tidbits at the Tavern - Have a Beer Bear on Me ;)

This Bear Would Probably
Dispense Dark & Tan ;)

I figure if I'm going to brainstorm, I might as well post as the process works it's way out.

As I said earlier, most magic items found in RPGs (and similarly written about in RPGs) have to do with magic weapons and magic armor.  It certainly makes sense from a gaming POV, as many, if not most, RPGs revolve around combat. Therefore, you give the players what they need to get better at combat. When we think "Christmas Tree" effect, we think of weapons, armor, stat buffers and saving throw adjusters.  Do any of these really help the Wizard as he goes about his daily business in his tower or about town?

So what we really need are magic items that are useful, even if they aren't directly useful for combat.  Some of them might be indirectly useful for combat, and many players will certainly find a way to push these "non-combat" magic items into uses that the GM will never see coming.

Additionally, if we are looking to design / create / invent / pull out of collective butt holes magic items that don't directly fall into the "Christmas Tree" effect, we can, for the most part, design them without stats or numerical values. That's important, because if the idea behind the item can transcend game systems, it's chance of being used in someone's game just increased exponentially.

Some items will have more of a direct use in the average adventure than others, but inventive players will find a use for pretty much everything as some point.

Now, I have an idea for magic items based upon classic children's toys.  As such, I'm going to go with the idea that they are the inventions of a single Mage.  Maybe his son passed at an early age, and in the child's memory he uses children's toys to accomplish different tasks.  Well, magically enhanced children's toys.  Still need a name for the mage though.

Here's a quick example:

Beer Bear - This appears to be a child's stuffed bear of smallish size.  If one tilts the bear's head back and makes a poring motion with the bear, cold beer (up to the amount of a pint) flows forth.  The type of beer that the bear dispenses depends on the color of the bear.  Black bears dispense stout and brown bears dispense a pilsner.  The bear will dispense beer up to 8 times in a single day.

Hard to beat the image of one of the PCs going to sleep in a dungeon, holding his Beer Bear tight to him, of fear another party member may take off with it ;)