QHW, Day 17: Roadside

Raiders of the Weird Wasteland

HD 1
Move normal

Lieutenant: Any raider with max hp is a lieutenant.

d10 What are they attacking with?

1. their own mutated arms (d6)
2. a severed rotting arm (d4, Save vs disease)
3. lots and lots and lots of knives (d4 attacks for d4 damage)
4. cutlery spear (d6, on maximum damage the fork remains stuck in your body and causes bleeding)
5. chainsaw-chucks (2d6, beheads self on any double)
6. scissor sword (d8 but extremely silly-looking)
7. mithril skillet (d6, +4 to cooking checks)
8. knuckledusters with vulgar inscriptions (d6, critical hit leaves a FUCK-shaped scar)
9. spiked chain (d6, reach)
10. GIANT DEATH BEAM LASER CANNON (d20 once, then it overheats)

d4 What armour do they have?

1. none, but they have sniffed some silver paint and now scream: "Witness me!" (unarmoured, but immune to pain, fear and morale)
2. bottlecap maille, handmade (leather)
3. tire tread armour, from the ever-burning rubber hills of the north (chain)
4. scrap plate (plate, but Move becomes half normal)

d4 What is the lieutenant's deal?

1. Super: Can fly and shoot lasers for d8 damage.
2. Zombie: Regains 1 hp / round and cannot be killed unless the players specifically say they destroy the head.
3. Terminator: Their human disguise is discarded when they first reach 0 hp. They transform into a HD 4 killer robot and all damage done so far is revealed to have been superficial.
4. Wizard: Roll for two random spells they know. They have a "spellbook" with incantations scribbled in the blank spaces of an old Playboy.

 

Weres of Vanth

Weres are notorious if rare on Vanth, the victims of a hereditary curse that brings about excessive hair growth*, alarming allergies and a monthly involuntary transmogrification associated with one of the Vanth's moons. The origin of the curse varies by the family line, from a pissed-off deity or experimental gene splicing going awry to the unspeakable depravity of bestiality. (Who am I kidding, it was the bestiality most of the time.)
 

While certain level of animosity against these animal-shifters is not uncommon, a poll carried out in the Realm of the Hobling Emperor and the cities along the western coast of the Sea of Great Peril showed that most citizens are accepting of their therianthropic neighbours, as long as all fowl devoured during the full moon is promptly compensated for. In the south-eastern jungles, Weres even tend to hold positions as revered druids, shamans or other religious leaders, due to the belief that they can commune with the spirits of nature much more easily than other folk, especially in their animal form.

By contrast in the Slaver Kingdoms, Weres are considered a high-priced commodity, as they can be sold either as curios to extravagant nobles, or as quality breeding stock**. And don't even ask about the Shunned Towns.

A recent study published in the Paranature journal suggests that it is not advisable to tell any jokes along the lines of "You mamma was a bitch. Literally." in the presence of Weres. The study concluded that such a joke tends to elicit a brutal, violent reaction from 93.7 % of Weres.

 

Wereshark, werecheetah, werebat and weregator.

 
Were-animal
When you roll this racial option, assemble your therianthropic curse from the tables below, then roll on the table of races again to find your actual race when you're not prowling the night in animal form.
 

Wereserpent
From Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

 
Beast Form
You turn into an animal form. Roll here.

If you don't like the result, you may reroll, but only once. If your beast form is particularly tiny, you may turn into a swarm of such animals instead.

While in your were-form, you have all abilities that the animal would possess, whether extra combat effects, better senses, or new forms of movement, but you cannot wield weapons or wear armour. Wounds carry over between forms.

You always shape-shift into your animal form on the night when your moon is full, and cannot turn back until morning when you revert automatically. At any other time, you may try and roll Great Feat to change. This roll can only be attempted once per day, whether to turn into an animal, or to turn back.

You can communicate with animals of similar type as your beastly form, no matter your current form.
 
d20 Banes
When exposed to your Bane (skin contact for the materials, otherwise as appropriate), take d4 damage per round. When attacked with your Bane, take double damage.

1. silver,
2. gold,
3. iron (but not steel),
4. copper (including bronze),
5. chrome,
6. obsidian,
7. gems,
8. glass,
9. ice (but not snow),
10. paper,
11. fresh wood,
12. old bones,
13. synthetic fibre and plastic,
14. sea water,
15. alcohol,
16. garlic,
17. music and singing,
18. phasics,
19. magic spells and weapons,
20. the light of your moon; you change on new moon instead.

d8 Moons

1. Black Moon
2. Green Moon
3. Grey Moon
4. Half-Moon
5. Red Moon
6. Skull Moon
7. White Moon
8. Yellow Moon

Vanth actually has nine moons, occasionally. The Blue Moon, also known as the Capricious Traveller or the Stargazer's Bother, tends to appear sporadically for a few days, then not be seen for many months. Its erratic presence thankfully doesn't affect any vanthian Weres, who would otherwise be quite inconveniently at the mercy of its quantum whimsy.
 

Good old werewolf transformation.
From Hemlock Grove

  
*) Not to be confused with the much more common super-hair-growth mutation. Also note that non-mammalian Weres tend to develop small patches of feathers or scales instead of becoming hirsute.
**) It has been shown that interbreeding with Weres increases the intelligence of animal offsprings to near-human levels. The loose alliance of several Were tribes known as the Horse Tamers voluntarily uses this quirk of biology to breed their world-famous, highly intelligent horses.

Zira: Never Enough Crazy

I've already mentioned Encounter Critical, but there's never enough crazy, right?

I also found out about deadEarth, an RPG that (unlike EC) does take itself seriously, but everyone else thinks it's so bad it's fun. The rules are somewhat garbage, but there are over 1000 "radiation manipulations" - something like really deadly mutations on hallucinogenic steroids. I haven't found anyone playing it, but many people have made characters just for the shits and giggles. It's like a strange mini-game, trying not to die during character creation.

So I was thinking, if I take a working set of gonzo rules from EC and graft a huge table of gonzo mutations from dE on top of it, surely nothing bad could happen? Of course, we'll be mixing apples and carrots and hoping for a tasty salad, and that's not possible without some seasoning. In other words, we'll need to make many, many rule adjustments.
 

 

Rule Adjustments

Strength is easy - apply all modifications to your Strength statistic.

Moves grant you multiple actions per round in deadEarth, but there is nothing like that in Encounter Critical. They also determine your movement speed, so we can convert them to EC-style movement speed, 1" per Move. You start with unarmoured movement of 7" in EC and with 7 Moves on average in dE, so that should translate just fine.

Resiliency is basically your hit points. While deadEarth also has hit points for separate body parts, I think we can omit that and simply count Resiliency as hit points when converting to Encounter Critical.

Renown is slowly acquired as you grow in power to become a legendary adventurer. It's not a perfect fit, but I'll be treating Renown as levels in EC.

Shielding is a percentage resistance to radiation. Encounter Critical is not that big on radiation (unless it is in your game), but we could simply add a new Rad Shielding defense that would work the same as normal Armour defense (percentage chance for reduced damage/effect). It's not even necessary to alter the numbers.

And speaking of armour, deadEarth gives each piece of armour stress points that are basically damage reduction. I haven't seen any radiation that would actually grant stress points, so if I happen upon one, I'll resolve it ad hoc, I guess.

There are also something like 200 skills in deadEarth, giving you multiple d6s to beat a variable target number. Learning the skills is needlessly complicated (skill points for each use, variable costs, chains of requirements) and the system does not seem like it would scale well. Encounter Critical uses much less numerous "percentile abilities" that are quite unusual in both names and interpretation, but easy in use as they require a simple d100 roll under the given number. Thankfully, radiations that give bonuses to skills grant them as eg. +2d6, which is easily translated to percentage bonus by rolling the dice, with a caveat: If a single radiation gives a bonus to multiple skills that would translate to the same percentile ability, I'm going to only boost it once.

Here is how I will pair the percentile abilities from EC with the skills from dE:

Alchemist: Chemistry, Demolitions, Pharmacology
Appease: Charisma (also to Seduce)
Argue: Bemuse, Guile, Outright Lie
Camping: Domestics, Horticulture
Clue: Forensics, Investigate, Search, Senses, Spot Trap, Tracking
Crowd Manipulate: Command, Influence, Troubadour
Enrich: Appraise, Business, Haggle
Explore: Navigate, Pioneering
Fake: Forgery
Great Feat: Weight Training, WS Paired
Happenstance: Gamble
Illicit: Streetwise
Invisibility: Hide
Labor: Armor Repair, Construction, Electronics, Jury-Rig, Mechanics, Metallurgy, Mining, Smithing, Weapon Smithing
Lesser Feat: Acrobatics, Climbing, Drive Non-Motorized, Drive Recreational, Drive Sailcar, Running, Swimming
Logic: Computer Programming, Math, Reason, Sensors
Machine Friend: Broadcasting, Computer Operation, Drive Automobile, Drive Boat, Drive Heavy Machine, Drive Plane, Drive Railed, Drive Tracked, Drive Vessel, Robotics
Melee Attack: Boxing, Brawling, Martial Arts, Wrestling, WS Blade, WS Melee
Monster Friend: Beast Handling, Beast Lore, Beast Ride, Drive Cart
Provide: Herb Lore, Trapping/Fishing
Psi Resist: Resolve
Ranged Attack: Vehicle Gunnery, WS Ballista, WS Handgun, WS Missile, WS Rifle, WS Thrown
Read Minds: Interrogate
Saving Throw: WS Shield
Scare: Intimidate
Scholarship: Biology, Cybernetic Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Genetic Engineering, Memory, Physics, Mechanical Engineering, Robotic Engineering
Seduce: Charisma
See the Future: Intuition
Sneak: Escape, Stealth
Sneak Attack: Armor Penetration
Steal: Hork, Jimmy Lock
Survival: First Aid, Medic, Medical Doctor

BTW, the Command skill from deadEarth does not apply to the Command ability from EC because the ability is psi witch specific and works as a form of mind control rather than a leadership skill.

deadEarth also has natural abilities and inabilities that modify skill rolls. For EC, we have to make up a new rule: When rolling a percentile ability that is a natural ability for you, switch the digits rolled (eg. 73 becomes 37). If either of those result succeeds, the roll is a success. Vice versa for natural inability - if either result is a failure, the roll fails. We won't roll for them randomly as is normally done in deadEarth character creation, though, you will only gain them from radiations.

Skill points are tricky. Encounter Critical has free percentile points you can add to your abilities, but in much, much lower numbers than the hundreds of skill points you'll gain in deadEarth. I'd say you can use any skill points you will gain from the radiation manipulations to buy percentile points, but the exact costs will have to be tested. Just looking at the amount of skill points versus the amount of free percentile points you get, every +1% to a percentile ability should cost as many skill points as the new percentage number. This will bring in some math, but I have an app for that and no one else will ever do this anyway. :D

Of course, skill points are also used as a sort of mana pool for spells activated radiations, so you might as well keep some to power you superhuman powers.

But we'll be making lots and lots of rulings, anyway.
 

 

deadCrit Character Creation

1. Roll 3d6 in order for your nine statistics from EC, ignore attributes from deadEarth.
2. Roll for your character race.
3. Pick if you want to be a cave primitive, advanced creature, or a hybrid. Do not roll any mutations from EC.
4. Roll for your age, height and weight according to deadEarth, which also determines the amount of your skill points and radiations.
5. Do not roll for natural in/abilities, ignore the Player's Choice and do not buy skills from dE.
6. Roll for your radiation manipulations.
7. Pick a character class.
8. Determine your percentile abilities according to the EC tables and bonuses from race, class and radiations, then use your skill points to increase abilities of your choice.
9. Gain money and buy equipment per EC rules, not per deadEarth rules.

If you're not dead by now, you are more lucky than most. Good job, go die in the first session.
 

  
Let's try it, shall we? It's probably going to backfire horribly.

For attributes, we got:

13 Adaptation
10 Dexterity
15 Extrasensory Perception
8 Intellect
17 Leadership
9 Luck
12 Magic Power
12 Robotic Nature
11 Strength

Not bad rolls at all! We have very high LEA and ESP, so unless that changes dramatically, I will go for the psi witch (read "Jedi") class.

Rolling for race... 72 is a Planetary Ape. That's +1 ESP, -1 LEA, -3 MAG, +1 STR, plus later +10% Lesser Feat and +10% Great Feat. Also roll for our sex... female. So of course her name is Zira.

She could go evolved or hybrid, but the first one would decrease her STR which she will need if she wants to swing a lightsabre, and the second would be too frivolous for our first character.

13 ADA, 10 DEX, 16 ESP, 8 INT, 16 LEA, 9 LUC, 9 MAG, 12 ROB, 12 STR

Going on to the deadEarth Player's Handbook, age is rolled on a d100 where 16-60 is kept and anything else gives you some modifiers and a reroll.

13 - Roll again and subtract 50 skill points. What a great start.
78 - Roll again and add 100 skill points. This could take a while.
83 - Roll again and subtract 100 skill points.
77 - Roll again and add 100 skill points. Sigh...
94 - Roll again and add a D6 to an attribute.
96 - Roll again and subtract a D6 from an attribute. I think the dice are pulling one on me.
74 - Roll again and subtract D6 radiation manipulations.
49 - Finally!

We've seen nearly all of the non-age options on the table, but now we know that Zira is forty nine years old, which in turn means she gets -5 Moves, -1 Strength, -3 Resiliency, 960 + d6x10 skill points and 3d6 radiations. That means a grand total of 12 radiations and 1060 skill points, after all adjustments.

The addition and subtraction from attributes will not apply to the nine above, as deadEarth has a helpful table of the attributes you can change by the rolls in character creation (and those above are called statistics anyway, plus it might be overpowered to just boost or loose them and we're all about game balance, right?). Instead we'll try to mitigate the penalty to Moves, or Zira will be one really slow ape. With +4, we have much more manageable -1 Move, but still need to deal with another d6 of penalty to, hmm... You know what? Height.

But first we should roll for it. That's 48 + 6d6 inches, so Zira is 71" (180 cm) tall, -5 penalty included. For weight, we roll 5d6 on a table that is missing in the Player's Handbook (sigh), but thankfully included in the Game Master's Handbook. We get 16, so Zira's weight is double her height in pounds: 142 pounds (64 kg).

Zira seems really skinny. Maybe she was ill?

We also get attribute modifiers from Zira's height and weight, found in yet another table: +2 Moves, -1 Resiliency and -2 Strength. Looks like Zira won't be so good at lightsabre-swinging after all. At least she is now at +1 Moves.

But now on to the main event - the radiation manipulations (no, I don't know why are they called that). There is one thousand of them in the Player's Handbook (PHB), another hundred each in two Radiation Table Supplements (RTS 1 and 2) and 200 more in the fan-made Attitudes supplement (TT), plus I'll slap the hundred mutations from my Encounter Critical Advanced Mutations Table (AMT) at the end of this list for a nice d1500. Let's do this!

 

[1] PHB 385: Antlers. In a curious cross with area wildlife, you have gained D6 horns or antlers of your choice on your head. cost: none. range: self. effect: cumulative.

Zira only gets one, so it shall be a beautiful unicorn horn!

[2] RTS1 1004: Testosterone treatment. Roll a D6 to determine your natural masculinity. Your roll determines which radiations you should add to your list from the deadEarth Player's Handbook. On a 1 take (333) Lost, (363) Dyslexia, (184) Sailor’s nightmare, and (409) Crash and burn. On a 2 take (129) Moot, (283) Indecisive, and (204) Boot-licker. On a 3 take (114) Know-it-all, (386) Brainiac, and (781) Dumbfounded. On a 4 take (502) Troll, (924) Hypertrophy, and (286) Dense. On a 5 take (572) Vile and (966) Grotesque. On a 6 take (115) Unlucky, (575) Fameless, (600) Twist of fate, (517) Beginner’s luck, and (339) Demon guide. If your character is female add (152) Gender switch, and make it permanent. And just because you’re a man add (RTS1-02) Sexually stupid. If your character is over the age of 40 add (RTS1-01) Senile from this table. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

Now we're starting to see the fun of deadEarth radiations. ;) I rolled a 6 for natural masculinity.

Unhappy with her penalties to Strength, Zira took some medicine to muscle up. It didn't go so well.

PHB 115: Unlucky. From now on use one distinguishable die in all of your rolls. If that die rolls a one, subtract it and your highest die from your total. Roll your unlucky die again. If it rolls one again, something terrible will happen at the Game Master's discretion. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

Ouch, that is not good for our hopeful psi witch. Because abilities in EC are rolled on a d100 and not with a bucketful of d6s, lower rolls are better and thus Unlucky should make Zira reroll low numbers. So we will reword this radiation as: If you roll a 1 on your tens die (results 10 - 19) when rolling a percentile ability, reroll.

PHB 575: Fameless. Just your luck, when ever you do something cool, no one is around to see it. You renown is permanently set equal to zero. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

That is even worse! I said I'll treat Renown as levels, but setting poor Zira's level permanently to 0 is too cruel for me. Instead, I'll say this doubles the experience requirements for Zira to advance a level. See how kind a GM I am?

PHB 600: Twist of fate. Your luck runs in streaks. Roll a D6 every week. On a roll of 1, 2, or 3, your luck is sour. You lose D6 on all skill rolls that week and bad things will tend to happen to you at the game master's discretion. On a roll of 4, 5, or 6, your luck is in. You gain D6 on all skill rolls that week and good things will tend to happen to you at the game master's discretion. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

Getting +/-d6% to all percentile abilities on a week-by-week basis is not as bad as the previous ones, at least, though it is incredibly fiddly.

PHB 517: Beginner's luck. The first time you perform a skill it will automatically raise to 3D6 with no cost to you provided that you have met its prerequisites. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

Skills in deadEarth start at 2d6, so I say this is free +d6% to all percentile abilities, rolled separately for each. Nice.

PHB 339: Demon guide. There is a little guy on your shoulder who is telling you what to do and where to go. The unfortunate part is that he always seems to lead you to misfortune. If something bad is going to happen to someone in your group, the game master will make sure it happens to you first. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

Ouch once again. Zira is not lucky at all, but she is determined to survive at least the character creation! (And now I jinxed it.)

PHB 152: Gender switch. You become the opposite gender. cost: none. range: self. effect: cumulative.

Yeah, that. Maybe it wasn't just testosterone what Zira took? Given how much bad luck it brought to her, it seems like it was more of a deal with the devil demon guide.

Zira was a psi witch all her life, she was loyal and ready for anything her order required. At least she used to be ready. Now she was growing old (she's an ape, remember) and felt her powers wavering, her body no longer keeping up with her mind. She looked at the new padawans apprentice psi witches and felt obsolete. She wanted the strength of her youth back, she needed it all back, in case of a crisis or war or just because. The desperate will always find a way, and Zira found a warlock willing to sell her a potion he claimed to be a hormonal therapy, re-balancing her humours to make her strong once again.

It was a trap. The potion was not meant to empower her, it was meant to prepare the body and mind for possession and thus ease the incarnation of the warlock's patron into this world. The demon needed a living receptacle for his extradimensional spirit, a body and mind strong enough to hold his dark glory without burning up immediately. The warlock thought a psi witch would be perfect - already trained and accustomed to channelling power, Zira should make an exceptional vessel. And he was partially right. She was strong enough to survive the possession. She was too strong.

When the demon stormed into her, he expected little opposition. He flooded Zira's body and started to remake it in his image, turning her male and growing a horn, but then he was stopped. Zira fought back and prevailed. Unfortunately the summoning ritual was completely successful, so the demon couldn't be easily banished back beyond the veil, but he was trapped in Zira's mind, lock away and rendered impotent, or nearly so. He raged, oh how he raged. He screamed in Zira's thoughts for weeks and hurled his psychic force against the walls of his prison, but a psi witch's mind is a fortress.

But now Zira has a demon "guide" always whispering in the back of her mind and bent on her destruction. What little powers he can sneak out of the mind-cell he uses to bring all manner of misfortune on Zira's head, hoping that she will eventually loose her life or mind, releasing him to sate his wrath and lust for revenge on the rest of the world.

RTS1 1002: Sexually stupid. Flip a coin every time you encounter someone of your sexual preference. On heads, while in the presence of someone of your sexual preference, your senses, reason, resolve, intuition, charisma, guile, and influence are reduced by 3D6 each. cost: none. range: sight. effect: binary.

Sigh... I had no idea I would need to know such thing, so let me roll a d4 for Zira's sexual preference: heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual and asexual. She was a heterosexual woman and I see no reason her preferences should change along with her body, so now he's a gay man. Or maybe she's a straight trans-woman? I'm confused and quite sure someone will yell at me for this. Let's keep calling her "she" because she still thinks of herself as a woman, even though her body is now male. Stupid demon-based gender-bending.

Gives -9% to Appease, Argue, Clue, Crowd Manipulate, Logic, Psi Resist, Seduce and See the Future around men. Oh goody.

Onwards!

[3] TT 1380: Phthisis. You have contracted a strange wasting disease similar to tuberculosis of the lungs. Every D6 days lose 1 Strength, Resiliency and Moves. When resiliency is reduced to 0 you die. A doctor can save you with a difficulty 24 roll. With a difficulty 36 roll you will even recover your lost stats at one point per month. Cost: none. Range: Self. Effect: Cumulative.

Do you see now why surviving the character creation in deadEarth is kind of a big deal? And we're only at the third radiation out of twelve! Or maybe it's working as intended, with an inbuilt side quest right off the bat? No? Never mind.

After Zira's order, the Sisters of the Sabre, realised what she had done, they drove her out of the temple that was her home since she was a child. Devastated, humiliated and unable to stop her life from crumbling before her very eyes, Zira became homeless and hopeless. She slept on the streets, she wandered aimlessly in the back alleys of the city that once seemed so welcoming to her, she skulked in shadows and draped herself in rags as every stare seemed accusing to her. She was always hungry, soaked and chilled, despairing and barely sane as the demon continued to claw on her psyche. Her body eventually gave way.

And now we also know why she's so skinny.

[4] PHB 673: Radiation grab bag. Roll a D6 and apply the following condition according to your roll: 1) Remove a radiation of your choice from your list. 2) Remove a random radiation from your list. 3) Roll on the radiation table. 4) Roll twice on the radiation table. 5) Roll twice on the radiation table, but add only one of the rolls to your list of radiations. 6) Remove a radiation of your choice from your list of radiations, then roll on the radiation table. cost: none. range: self. effect: temporary.

Life on the streets is not kind and some of the rain might have been radioactive. Rolling 4...

PHB 622: Radiation aging. From now on, each radiation you gain effectively adds five years to your age. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

Okay, Universe, I get it. This was a bad idea from the very start.

Imprisoning a spirit in your mind is no small feat. It drains your energies every second of a day, without respite. You have to dig deeper and deeper into your reserves, until you burn your very life force just to keep going. Zira can feel it, her life slipping away as it's spent to mitigate the damage of a demon rampaging within her soul.

PHB 504 Damage control. If an attacker successfully damages you, roll your Running against their attacking roll. If you beat their roll, you will lose no hit points. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

Running translates to Lesser Feat roll to avoid damage - Zira was a nimble one in her younger days! Also she ages five years, so now she's 54. That pushes her to the next age category for further -2 to Moves, Resiliency and Strength.

[5] PHB 978: Jack of all trades. Remove all natural abilities and inabilities. All of your skills 2D6 or below are now at 3D6 and cannot be advanced beyond 6D6. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

That one's tricky. I will say it means Zira will have all her percentile abilities in the 30-60% range, no less and no more. We'll see how good or bad that will be later, after the radiation ordeal is done.

Younger Zira was good, but not exceptional in anything. She was too rash and impatient for that. She wanted to know and try everything, she wanted it now. She learnt a bit from every form of lightsabre combat, but had truly mastered none of them. She was trained in many psychic powers, but always ran from her teachers when another discipline caught her fancy. She was enthusiastic and not really thinking about the consequences.

This might be one of the reason why she ended up with a demon in her brain. It would be a valuable life lesson, if it wasn't rapidly killing her.

Five more years of age and now Zira is 59 years old with 5 Strength total and -8 modifier to hit points (those are rolled for your class, which we didn't pick yet). And if you think this is the game conversion not working, then no, that's not the (whole) problem. With so many penalties as Zira amassed, she would be way below zero even if she rolled attributes in core deadEarth.

We can even try it - you start with 2d6 Moves, 1d6+3 Resiliency and 0 Strength. So pure deadEarth Zira would have 5 Moves, -2 Resiliency and -7 Strength. At 0 Resiliency, you have a chance each day to die from a common disease or infection. At -1 Strength, you are crippled and cannot move under your own power. deadEarth is truly the most realistic and balanced game of them all.

[6] RTS2 1181: Ravenous. You now require 4 rations per day to survive. Add 10 pounds to your weight each month. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

I don't blame her that she eats as much as she can while there is something to eat, after starving on the streets for who knows how long. Putting on some weight will do no harm to her, anyway.

She also reached the end of the age table, so no more stat penalties for her.

Probably. Maybe. I don't know.

There is this one rule in the deadEarth Player's Handbook: Every year after the age of 40 apply a -1 modifier to either resiliency, strength, or moves. But there are values for starting stats adjustments up to the age of sixty, so it wouldn't make sense to also decrease random stats. If you rolled a starting age of 60, you would immediately get -20 to random stats in addition to the penalties on the age table! Maybe that sentence is applicable to years of in-game time, not to unnatural ageing during character creation? Yeah, let's go with that.

[7] PHB 354: Fervor. You may not be as skilled, but you try much harder than anyone else. Add 1 to all rolls. cost: none. range: self. effect: cumulative.

Oh! Something nice for a change! And it corresponds nicely to what we've learnt about Zira so far.

[8] RTS1 1041: Corrupt. Add D6 to guile and forgery. Subtract D6 from charisma. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

The demon is whispering, always threatening and tempting and giving advice that would lead her right off the slippery slope.

Gives +5% Argue, +4% Fake, -1% Appease and -2 Seduce.

[9] PHB 969: Slippery. Your skin secretes oils which keep it very slippery. Any combat maneuver which involves grabs, holds, etc. are at -2D6 to perform. +2D6 to escape. Clothing tends to be uncomfortable; if armor heavier than leather is worn, -2 moves. Your skin also tends to be reflective due to its sheen: -D6 to hide. cost: none. range: self. effect: binary.

Zira has a slick, matted fur that is nothing like the gossamer, perfumed fur of the lady-apes you'll often see on the streets, and she's well aware and ashamed of it. This might help to explain her awkwardness with all men, in addition to now being a male herself. Though she should really get over it, with this radiation her age is 79. Greasy fur does help in fight, however, and also makes water slide right off her body. She's native to the rainy City of Thunders in northern Vanth, so that's appreciated.

Gives -6% Melee Attack for grappling, +8% Sneak and -3% Invisibility.

[10] PHB 104: Supernova. When you die you will explode in a burst of energy. Anyone or anything within 10 feet of you will suffer 6D6 energy damage, 5D6 within 20 feet, and so on, reducing by a D6 for every 10 feet. cost: none. range: 60 feet. effect: binary.

That one can be taken word for word, I think.

The trapped demon burns with horrible hatred, waiting until he can finally burst free of this meaty prison and spread carnage in the world that he should have ruled. The second Zira dies, the demon will manifest in a column of flames and quench his thirst on the ashes of anyone nearby.

[11] PHB 267: Negative influence. Your pessimistic attitude affects everyone around you. Anyone performing a skill in your company must subtract a D6 from their roll, except you. cost: none. range: others in your presence. effect: binary.

Of course Zira has negative influence on those around her, she barely contains a demon in her head! All nearby creatures can sense him and will take -d6% to all percentile abilities from the distracting aura of malice.

[12] AMT 1448: Halo. Either a circle of holy radiance (take half laser and phasic damage), or a triangle of black, evil fire (take half fire damage). Equal odds.

That's one of my extra EC mutations, plus I rolled the evil variant! Zira is so consistent!

The single horn on Zira's forehead is surrounded by black fire, a mark of Glasya-Labolas of the Black Flame, Duke of the Bottomless Pit, Destroyer of Avarnach and First of the Dark Stars. The Sisters of the Sabre expelled her after recognising the mark and all implications thereof. The second she dies, Glasya-Labolas shall be released upon Vanth and all shall be consumed in black fire.

 
Whew, she survived, even though she's possessed, unlucky, slowly dying of tuberculosis and ninety four years old. But we still need to go over her class, abilities and equipment!

She's obviously a psi witch.

The qualifying stat for psi witches is ESP, which Zira has high enough to get a +10% Experience Bonus. She also starts with 2d6 hit points, and this will be a risky roll, because she has a -8 HP penalty from her advanced age, so she needs to roll at least 9 to avoid dying from too few hit points. If that happens, I say she succumbs to her consumption just before the start of the adventure, and the rest of the party can go investigate the mysterious black explosion that levelled up the tavern they should have had a meeting at, and maybe even find the trail of burned bodies that Glasya-Labolas will leave behind.

9

Wow. Zira gets a glorious single hit point, but she still lives, against all odds. She might have cross-mutated with a cockroach when we weren't looking.

13 Adaptation
10 Dexterity
16 Extrasensory Perception
8 Intellect
16 Leadership
9 Luck
9 Magic Power
12 Robotic Nature
5 Strength

Race: Planetary Ape
Class: Psi Witch
Hit Points: 1
Level: 1
Experience to Advance: 1062

Psi witches get several unique percentile abilities, plus they may use normal abilities in "psychic ways". For example Clue might work as sensing latent emotions or imprints of past memories instead of simply searching for clues, while Read Mind actually reads the mind and not just senses motive from body language.

We now have to reference our stats with tables in EC rulebook to find the level of all our percentile abilities, then modify them with the radiations we've rolled.

Alchemist: 30% (base 17%, +4% Beginner's Luck = 21% without Jack of All Trades)
Appease: 58% (base 56%, +3% Beginner's Luck, -1% Corrupt)
Argue: 47% (base 40%, +2% Beginner's Luck, +5% Corrupt)

Blind Attack: 37% (base 34%, +3% Beginner's Luck), later bought up to 50%

One of the psi witch specials, Blind Attack can be used instead of normal Attack abilities when fighting blind. Additionally a psi witch cannot go up a level until she wins a battle blind, which is one of the little rules that make Encounter Critical quite awesome.

Camping: 60% (base 63%, +3% Beginner's Luck = 66% without Jack of All Trades)
Clue: 30% (base 20%, +1% Beginner's Luck = 21% without Jack of All Trades)

Command: 60% (base 77%, +18% Interaction, +6% Beginner's Luck = 101% without Jack of All Trades)
Command Energy: 51% (base 49%, +2% Beginner's Luck)
Command Matter: 52% (base 48%, +4% Beginner's Luck)

The three Command abilities above are also psi witch specials, representing mind control, power over elements and telekinesis, respectively. Here Zira takes a big hit from Jack of All Trades, because a mind control with 101% success chance would be sweet (sure, the target gets a saving throw, but at least Zira would never fail to use the power correctly).

Conjure: 30% (base 2%, +4% Beginner's Luck = 6% without Jack of All Trades)

This ability is primarily for warlocks, but Zira can still "conjure" creatures by calling out loud and waiting who comes to look.

Consume Alien Food: 30% (base 10%, +1% Beginner's Luck = 11% without Jack of All Trades)
Crowd Manipulate: 60% (base 64%, +18% Interaction, +6% Beginner's Luck = 88% without Jack of All Trades)
Enrich: 30% (base 17%, +2% Beginner's Luck = 19% without Jack of All Trades)
Experience Bonus: 30% (base 1%, +10% high qualifying stat, +1% Beginner's Luck = 12% without Jack of All Trades)
Great Feat: 30% (base 1%, +10% Planetary Ape race, +3% Beginner's Luck = 14% without Jack of All Trades)
Guard: 60% (base 58%, +2% Beginner's Luck)
Happenstance: 30% (base 20%, +1% Beginner's Luck = 21% without Jack of All Trades)
Invisibility: 60% (base 68%, +4% Beginner's Luck, -3% Slippery = 69% without Jack of All Trades)
Labor: 60% (base 78%, +1% Beginner's Luck = 79% without Jack of All Trades)
Lesser Feat: 39% (base 25%, +10% Planetary Ape race, +4% Beginner's Luck), later bought up to 49%
Logic: 60% (base 65%, +3% Beginner's Luck = 68% without Jack of All Trades)
Machine Friend: 37% (base 32%, +5% Beginner's Luck)
Meld: 51% (base 50%, +1% Beginner's Luck)
Melee Attack: 30% (base 27%, +1% Beginner's Luck = 28% without Jack of All Trades)
Mistaken Identity: 30% (base 11%, +3% Beginner's Luck = 14% without Jack of All Trades)
Monster Friend: 30% (base 20%, +6% Beginner's Luck = 26% without Jack of All Trades)
Psi Resist: 47% (base 41%, +6% Beginner's Luck)
Psychic Implant: 41% (base 37%, +4% Beginner's Luck), later bought up to 42%
Ranged Attack: 55% (base 50%, +5% Beginner's Luck)
Read Minds: 46% (base 42%, +4% Beginner's Luck)
Restore Courage: 60% (base 69%, +18% Interaction, +1% Beginner's Luck = 88% without Jack of All Trades)
Saving Throw: 53% (base 48%, +5% Beginner's Luck)
Scholarship: 35% (base 34%, +1% Beginner's Luck)
Seduce: 60% (base 66%, +18% Interaction, +1% Beginner's Luck, -2% Corrupt = 83% without Jack of All Trades)
See the Future: 30% (base 6%, +2% Beginner's Luck = 8% without Jack of All Trades)
Sneak: 48% (base 36%, +4% Beginner's Luck, +8% Slippery)
Steal: 30% (base 13%, +2% Beginner's Luck = 15% without Jack of All Trades)
Survival: 43% (base 39%, +4% Beginner's Luck)
Unpleasant Order: 60% (base 57%, +5% Beginner's Luck = 62% without Jack of All Trades)

We also shouldn't forget the conditional -9% penalty to Appease, Argue, Clue, Crowd Manipulate, Logic, Psi Resist, Seduce and See the Future around men that Zira takes from Sexually stupid.

Unarmed Damage: 1d3
Melee Damage Bonus: -4
Ranged Damage Bonus: 0
Lbs. of Psychic Force*: 1

Interesting. Jack of All Trades cripples some of Zira's best abilities, but it also makes her somewhat competent at anything she tries. And stuff like Great Feat, See the Future or Steal benefits quite a bit from it.

But we also have 1060 skill points to spend because Zira got no activated radiation manipulations and thus has no reason to keep them.

We could boost our pitiful 30% Melee Attack, but that does nothing to mitigate the damage penalty from low Strength, or the unpleasant fragility of a single hit point. Zira won't be a lightsabre-wielding swordswoman, but at least her Ranged Attack and Ranged Damage Bonus are not outright abysmal. If she can get a solid ranged weapon, she might pull off a wandering sniperwoman.

However, Zira will need her Blind Attack to advance in character level, and Blind Attack applies to both melee and ranged as long as you can't see, as far as I can tell. Let's boost it to 50% for 572 skill points. Zira's Ranged Attack is still a bit better, but now she can more or less ignore lighting conditions in a fight.

We should also boost Lesser Feat, because not only is it used for all cool stunts, Zira can also use it to dodge thanks to Damage control. So for 445 skill points, we'll buy it up to 49% (we don't have enough skill points to get it up to 50%, sadly).

That leaves us with 43 more points and that's not really enough to buy anything cool, so instead we'll go for the least amount wasted and buy +1% Psychic Implant for 42 points.

That actually seems to be working pretty well!
 

Zira gets 600 gold credits to spend on her starting equipment. First of all, let's get a weapon:

lever-action rifle: 1d12+1 damage, range 35"/180", price 374 GC
ammo for 2 battles**: price 8 GC

Zira has such a low Strength that she cannot wear any armour properly. In the original Encounter Critical rules, the lowest Strength requirement for suits of armour was 8, so we need to look at the extra armour chart in the module Asteroid 1618 for lighter (and pretty expensive) armour that Zira can use without penalties. And I don't want to have an EC character without a utility belt, because them pouches!

molecule vest: kinetic defense 30%, energy defense 15%, price 200 GC, requires 5 Strength
utility belt w/pouches: price 5 GC

Rations are 1 GC per day, but Zira needs four times that, so she can only afford food for three days. And for her last gold credit, I think she deserves a swig of ale for all her troubles.

rations x12
ale x1

And finally, let's roll once on the table of extra gear, just for fun: 146.

cool-looking scars

Nice!
 

 
That was really, really fun and really, really long. Zira survived a total of twenty one radiation manipulations and ended up as a more or less playable EC character.

Would I recommend the radiation manipulations from deadEarth to anyone trying to spice up their character creation? No. But there is some strange, masochistic charm in the unplayable, deranged results they seem to consistently produce. If you want to punish your players with really nasty mutations, deadEarth might be an inspiration.


*) Psychic Force is supposed to give the GM a rough idea of how much a psi witch can do with her Command abilities.
**) Ammo in EC costs 1/100th the cost of the weapon per battle. Pretty simple and handy.

Ray Guns

Useful, versatile and well-liked everywhere in the Galaxy, ray guns are a staple of space-faring adventurers. They are rather rare on Vanth outside of the God City, so having one holstered on your utility belt with pouches is a sure sign of accomplishment.

Ray Gun
Price: 1000 gold credits
Damage: per chosen setting
Range: 20" / 200"

Ray guns are tech weapons. They can be reloaded with power cells. Each comes with d4 different settings that can be freely switched between. Choose the settings randomly on the table below:

1. Heat ray: Deals 1d8 fire damage. Ignites flammable objects and may eventually melt even metal.
2. Freeze ray: Deals 1d8 cold damage. Freezes liquids and causes hypothermia.
3. Stun ray: Stuns for 1d4 rounds, or causes unconsciousness to already stunned targets.
4. Ion ray: Disrupts force fields, neutralising shields and other force effects for 1d4 rounds.
5. Hypno ray: Neural disruption causes 1d6 minutes of amnesia in living creatures.
6. Repulsor ray: Knock back 30'.
7. Tractor ray: Pulls target 30' closer.
8. Null ray: Only affects psionic and magical creatures, preventing them from using powers for 1d4 turns.
9. Radiation ray: Deals 1d6 Con damage. Dangerous to use without radiation protection.
10. Disintegration ray: Deals 1d20 damage and turns any creature killed into dust. Destroys objects and terrain. Takes 4 charges per shot.

Various ray guns.

  

Fancy goa'uld ray gun.

 

Encounter Critical Blog Ring

Browsing through the Encounter Critical blog ring, I noticed that many blogs linked there are, unfortunately, lost to the ages by now. However, I also found several newer blogs with material for Encounter Critical scattered here and there, so obviously it's time for a brand new...
 

 ...listing all the functioning blogs and sites I know of.

• Adventures in Gaming v2
• Barking Alien
• Curmudgeons & Dragons 
• Encounter Risical
• God City Sandbox
• The Grand Tapestry 
• Green Skeleton Gaming Guild
• Grognardia
• Guy-Wires
• Interloper Miniatures
• I Waste the Buddha With My Crossbow
• Jeff's Gameblog
• Joeskythedungeonbrawler's Blog
• The Lexicon of Vanth
• Library of Attnam 
• Malevolent & Benign 
• Mike's Amazing RPG Fun Pad
• More & Bigger Loot*
• No Signal!*
• Phasic Archives
• Planet Algol
• Polyhedral Dice Bag
• Rolltop Indigo
• Thoul's Paradise
• Uncle Bear 
• Venger's Old School Gaming Blog 

If you have links to any other sites with EC content, please share them.
 

I also updated the resource files with a few new finds, such as the terrible and terrific tale of old Vanth, the Eye of Argon.

*) This blog seemed to have been gone for good, but Internet Archive saves the day once again!

Critical Starting Gear

I like randomized starting gear much more than letting the players buy it from a boring shopping list. The table below was made for Encounter Critical, but should be appropriate for any science fantasy or post-apocalyptic game.

Roll three times on the list, plus get 3 rations, 3 torches and a bedroll.

d200 Starting Items:

1. large backpack,
2. 1d4 throwing knives,
3. 1d4 javelins,
4. landmine,
5. pair of handheld radios,
6. tool belt with tools (screwdriver, pliers, hammer, ...),
7. wrench,
8. flashlight,
9. 2d6 torches,
10. 1d6 empty injectors,
11. duct tape,
12. lighter,
13. 1d10 000 credits of debt,
14. coil of rope (20 m),
15. length of chain (5 m),
16. coil of barbed wire,
17. coloured chalks,
18. claw hammer and nails,
19. grappling hook,
20. canteen or flask,
21. canister of petrol,
22. 1d6 tins of (d4) baked beans / mystery meat / sardines / spinach,
23. 1d6 iron rations
24. padlock,
25. handcuffs,
26. walking staff,
27. tent,
28. winter sleeping bag,
29. 1d6 iron spikes,
30. wooden stake,
31. Swiss knife,
32. bear trap,
33. shovel,
34. rubber waders,
35. sunglasses,
36. hand saw,
37. bucket,
38. fishing rod,
39. pouch of ball bearings,
40. pouch of caltrops,
41. vial of strong glue,
42. pick axe,
43. ice pick and climbing irons,
44. wrist watch,
45. heavy steel tongs,
46. tin foil hat,
47. net,
48. metal file,
49. lock picks,
50. magnifying glass,
51. hand mirror,
52. vial of perfume,
53. scented soap,
54. binoculars,
55. ball of twine,
56. pencils and notepad,
57. ink, quills and parchment,
58. card deck,
59. dice set,
60. board game,
61. fake jewels,
62. cooking pots,
63. frying pan,
64. paint spray can,
65. whistle,
66. musical instrument of your choice,
67. interesting novel,
68. old magazines,
69. law books,
70. spirit stove,
71. matchbox,
72. snowshoes,
73. skateboard,
74. snowboard,
75. surfboard,
76. slingshot,
77. bandages,
78. bottle of hard liquor,
79. keycard,
80. pouch belt,
81. fedora,
82. hatchet,
83. sewing kit,
84. lead pipe,
85. very sharp scissors,
86. towel,
87. cigarettes,
88. waterproof bag,
89. winter jacket,
90. ammo belt,
91. mittens and bobble hat,
92. wetsuit,
93. roller skates,
94. ice skates,
95. protective leather gauntlets,
96. steel-toed boots,
97. human skull,
98. knuckleduster,
99. welding mask,
100. clown mask,
101. knee and elbow pads,
102. handmade fur hat,
103. balaclava,
104. bicycle,
105. compass,
106. face paint,
107. flippers and snorkel,
108. goggles,
109. abacus,
110. dosimeter,
111. oxygen tank,
112. gas mask,
113. small keg of beer,
114. handheld game console,
115. poncho,
116. first aid kit,
117. very, very long knitted scarf,
118. spork,
119. expendable baton,
120. box of tampons,
121. lasso,
122. periscope,
123. metal detector,
124. waterproof tarp,
125. crowbar,
126. can of grease,
127. three meter pole,
128. strong magnet,
129. holy symbol,
130. locket of hair,
131. bag of turnips,
132. wheel of expensive cheese,
133. chisel,
134. fancy set of clothes,
135. tobacco and pipe,
136. make-up set,
137. old uniform,
138. life vest,
139. inflatable raft,
140. oil lantern,
141. incense,
142. wig,
143. donkey,
144. 1d6 sheep,
145. companion chatbot cube,
146. cool-looking scars,
147. falcon,
148. briefcase of counterfeit money,
149. top hat,
150. camera,
151. boom box,
152. straight jacket,
153. tooth necklace,
154. bear hide,
155. blowtorch,
156. paints and brushes,
157. crutch,
158. jockstrap,
159. razor blade,
160. 2d6 cats,
161. wheelbarrow,
162. voodoo doll,
163. pony,
164. spyglass,
165. broom,
166. rag doll,
167. atlas of Vanth,
168. many keys on a ring,
169. small but vicious dog,
170. dried herbs,
171. red herring,
172. stolen signet ring,
173. alms bowl,
174. bolt cutter,
175. loyal peasant,
176. evidence kit,
177. 2d6 chemical light sticks,
178. fire extinguisher,
179. forged papers,
180. scalpel,
181. audio recorder,
182. sack of flour,
183. luchador mask,
184. recycling suit,
185. headlamp,
186. wineskin of cheap wine,
187. jug of pickled eggs,
188. pouch of salt,
189. 1d20 candles,
190. monkey,
191. gardening tools,
192. bag of various seeds,
193. drinking horn,
194. 1d4 doses of a drug,
195. 1d4 grenades,
196. power cell,
197. potion,
198. gadget,
199. tricorder,
200. jetpack.

Encounters in the Unchartable Woods

Here are some sites and sights your players could find in the yellow and red zones of the Unchartable Woods.

 
d50 Encounters in the Unchartable Woods

1. A well. Old and moss-covered, but the winch still seems to be working. You can also just about make out an opening half the way down the shaft.
2. A lamp post, just like the ones along the caravan trail, except here it sits in the middle of a meadow. Permanently alight.
3. A stone bridge over a ravine so deep you cannot even see the bottom. A rather friendly troll lives in a tiny cave below the bridge. It won't demand toll, but loves presents. It also really, really hates goats.
4. An orchard of fruit trees maintained by a suspicious but otherwise friendly robodroid. He keeps the trees for masters that left and never came back. He distills a strong obstler that his body can burn for energy.
5. A witch hut on chicken legs, the witch nowhere to be seen.
6. A feral robodroid, damaged and believing itself to be a cannibal savage. It hunts humanoids with obsidian spear, then attempts to eat them.
7. A severed arm is crawling to the east. It's scaly and wears a signet ring.
8. Giant gold spiders gathered in a massive swarm, spinning their webs high above between skyscraper-sized trees, with a king's ransom of gold trapped within. Not aggressive unless disturbed.
9. A slumbering demon-goddess in a dilapidated temple, served by a cabal of debauched Vulkins. They keep the goddess asleep with incessant chanting, and draw her blood with silver needles, injecting it to their veins to experience heightened emotions unadulterated by logic or shame. It would be very bad if the players made every last of them stop chanting.
10. A castle of wax, full of bee girls. This must be the fabled Apian Acropolis, where the royal jelly capable of curing all ills and even prolonging one's life is produced.
11. A perfectly circular lake of mercury.
12. A space-time vortex, leading to anywhere and anywhen. If the GM wishes to derail the campaign completely, I suggest they pick at random from all the setting books and modules they own. Otherwise, it might perhaps lead to the Asteroid 1618.
13. A crashed spaceship, long ago overtaken by nature. It will never fly again, but maybe there is still some high-tech wonder left intact.
14. A lighthouse. The crashing of sea waves and the cries of seagulls can be heard while inside.
15. An asphalt highway. It will lead you (d4): 1) out of the red zone in much less time than possible, 2) to the unknown highway (yes, on the other side of Vanth), 3) to a random other encounter, 4) back where you started after 1d6 days of uneventful travel.
16. A foothill of a high mountain with snowy peak. No one had ever heard about it, nor seen it even from the blimps that sometimes cross over the forest. There seem to be buildings high on the mountainside and shadows moving between them, but not humanoid shadows.
17. A towering crystal spire, with a narrow staircase chiseled into its side. Standing at the top, you could see all over Vanth with crystal clarity, and even chipped-off piece of the crystal can serve as a powerful spyglass.
18. A titan, bound by adamant chains with a single link larger than a grown man. It speaks with rumbling, sorrowful voice. It will offer anything and everything if you can set it free.
19. An area frozen in time. You can just barely make out some humanoid silhouettes inside, through the dirt and rain that gathered on the edges of the effect. Surely the time field could be broken?
20. An idol of black stone, half sunk into the swampy ground. It has two fiery jewels for eyes.
21. A well-kept hedge around a homely cottage. Dire sheep who can mimic human voices lurk nearby.
22. An old graveyard. Anything dead brought inside will spring back to life (including leather armour or cured meat), but only for as long as it doesn't leave the graveyard.
23. A factory complex, devoid of all life but full of phasic fumes. There is an insane medibot running around trying to cure anyone it can get its many manipulators on. It's actually really skilled in medicine and surgery, except that it puts everyone to hospital beds deep within the polluted complex, where they then asphyxiate.
24. A feast table full of lavish foods, expensive wines and exotic liquors. If the PCs taste anything off the table, they realise it heals their wounds, restores crippled limbs and revitalizes spirits. The next time they sleep, they will dream of beautiful people dancing with them through the night, and wake up 1d10 years older per every food or drink consumed.
25. A shrine and a pedestal with a gemstone of death. Intelligent, remorseful and very valuable. It glows ominously and will scream at anyone coming near not to touch it. A skin contact kills with no Save, and nearly all materials will rot, rust or crumble with prolonged contact.
26. The forest floor becomes covered in meaty tendrils and vines, until the PCs come upon a large, cancerous mass of flesh and fused carcasses, with a sphincter-like entrance. Might be a biomancer's laboratory, might be a temple of the God-Flesh, or even a portal to Xor.
27. The gravity just stops. An area of the forest experiences zero g. Maybe the culprit, be it a wondrous item or a miracle machine of stupendous science, could be found?
28. A distress call. Pick some form of communication available to the PCs; a radio, telepathic message, etc. It might lead to a ransacked camp, a replacement PC, or an ambush.
29. The end of the world. You found a cliff going straight down towards a starry void.
30. Three Amazons have a small cabin and several fields of coca plants here. They found a relatively reliable path out of the forest and enjoy the seclusion that allows them to run their drug trade in peace.
31. An ancient circle of standing stones and some modern scientific equipment laid out inside. There is no air within the circle, only vacuum, as anyone unlucky enough to enter will quickly discover.
32. The ruins of a lecture hall, with a ghostly professor endlessly talking about possibly quite interesting topics.
33. The wellspring of love. Any creature that drinks from the waters will be overwhelmed with the desire to mate and will produce viable offsprings no matter how incompatible their partner should be. Many hybrid creatures lurk nearby.
34. A small village stuck in a loop. Not a time loop, they just repeat the same activities day after day and know nothing about the outside of the village.
35. A bunker connected to an abandoned nuclear silo. The hidden launch door are buried and stuck, but the nuclear missile is still in working conditions. Another adventuring party might have arrived just before the PCs, intent on taking the weapon for themselves.
36. A humongous mecha, half-buried in the ground where it fell ages ago. It could still be repaired, but the time and resources necessary depend on how much you want your players to have a gigantic mecha.
37. A vanta rose field. They suck light out of their surroundings, plunging everything into absolute darkness. Not even magical light or sight can pierce it.
38. A random magic weapon in a stone. Anyone can pull it free, but anyone who does will firmly believe that they were chosen by this act as the true king or queen of a kingdom also lost in the Unchartable Woods, and that the weapon will reveal the path to their promised land to them. There is no kingdom and the wielder will just get themselves and the party lost.
39. A haphazard heap of electronics and scrap metal covered in moss speaks to the party in synthesised voice. It wishes to send them on a rather pointless fetch quests of medium difficulty, but for every fulfilled quest, it will allow one PC to pick a cybernetic augmentation and have it implanted. It won't tell that it can receive data from and remotely control the implants later.
40. A rusty iron cage, apparently empty. Except it's not. A close examination reveals extraordinarily powerful enochian sigils and runes of warding under the rust, strong enough to hold even an angel of the sixth choir.
41. The dread gazebo. It's actually completely normal except for a warding that envelops it in a fear aura. Once you get inside, the effect no longer affects you and you can enjoy the safety of a gazebo that the monsters are too afraid to come near.
42. A recently fallen star in a shallow crater. Her leg is broken, but otherwise she's unharmed, if frightened and baffled by her fall.
43. A space suit is reclining over a fallen tree, as if in respite. If opened, a torrent of swarming, ravenous insects will pour our, leaving inside only a skeleton gnawed clean.
44. The party wakes up dirty, exhausted, hungry and injured. They don't recognise their surroundings and 1d6 days worth of supplies are missing from their backpacks. Close by, a brain-like monstrosity lies slain by the PCs' own weapons.
45. The trees and undergrowth give way to enormous fungi, mushrooms and mycelium. Any open wounds will get infected with mould, and should the party stay longer with no breathing protection, the airborne spores will start to germinate even in their lungs.
46. A pair of lovers argues viciously before one assaults and kills the other. Then suddenly the whole scene flickers and starts again - the party will find a faulty holovision stuck endlessly replaying a short bit from some old soap opera.
47. A spawn of Shub-Niggurath merchant has her wares displayed and will be very eager to trade or talk, as business is quite slow around here.
48. A combination of shrubbery and briar forms a maze of narrow passages, large enough that circumventing it would take a long time. The surrounding forest seems very quiet, but once the party delves deeper into the maze, they will start hearing nearby footsteps or slithering sounds.
49. A sign is nailed to a tree. It unfortunately brings bad news - there is a minefield somewhere around here.
50. Lonely snowflakes fall on the party and as they continue on their path, it starts to get colder and colder. If they don't double back and choose a different route, they will wake up to a winter morning the next day, with heaps of snow and biting cold. It's not just a fluke in the weather, the time jumped forward to the next winter.

I also approve of these, if you want more encounters for the woods.

Unchartable Woods

There is a saying in Vanth, that lost things travel west, until they eventually all reach the so called Unchartable Woods. This wide swathe of forest stretches along the western edge of Vanth, even reaching as far as the great west road and towards the shunned towns. Many things fey and foul reside within the vast woods, and they are truly uncharted and uchartable. Not only are they wild and filled with monsters, but the landscape itself seems to shift sometimes, landmarks tend to disappear, distances are variable, rivers flow in circles, some areas are bigger on the inside or suddenly don't exist, and space and time seem to be more malleable than set.

The forest is dangerous and has already claimed all too many lives, but it blocks off rich trade routes and hides much that just waits to be discovered (or maybe rediscovered), from treasures and people to places and civilisations. Every year, more and more fools come hoping to find a fortune beneath the branches, but for every adventurer that profits, ten will loose friends, limbs or sanity.

And the woods are expanding, ever so slowly.

The edge of the Unchartable Woods is known as the green zone, a relatively safe area with low amount of weirdness and wealth. The parts of the forest that reach into Vanth are exclusively in the green zone, though that doesn't stop them from being as dangerous as any deep, wild woods might. Still, even the green zone provides timber and game of exceptional quality and size, and it is by no means monster free.

Yellow zone is the most common destination of adventurous ventures and the largest part of the Unchartable Woods. This is the area where the trees get larger and sunlight might have problems penetrating the canopy, where maps and compasses become unreliable, pathways treacherous and monstrous life ubiquitous. This is also where many a lost treasure, strange relic of the past, unknown magic or plainly weird stuff may be found. A more insidious danger of the yellow zone is that there is no obvious sign of coming close or crossing into the red zone, as the changes in the surroundings may be subtle at first, until the hapless pioneer gets confused and lost, or wanders into some unforeseen danger.
 

 
Red zone is deeper into the woods, where the trees grow taller than imaginable, supporting whole villages of beastmen or vegepygmies, where cities of ancient civilisations may be found overgrown by trees and vines and shrubbery, where the forest may give way to gigantic mushrooms, natural briar mazes or areas of petrified trees, and where animal, plant and monster life alike will make attempts at the explorer's life. Some even claim that the very air of the red zone is inimical to normal life, and anyone who stays too long may find themselves warped into a more monstrous self.

 

Horrors of the Silent Woods by ThemeFinland

Black zones are hearsay locations far, far beyond the places from where any expedition has managed to successfully return. Only rambling madmen rescued by other adventurers have been heard talking about black zones, claiming to have lost all their companions or decades of their life there. It is said that as you approach a black zone, the trees will become mutated and unnatural, even animated and aggressive, but in the zone itself they are replaced altogether with tall black monoliths pointing at a dark purple sky with alien stars. There is no Sun in a black zone, and the air is thin and barely breathable. Even many natural forces and laws, such as gravity or linear time, will start to loose hold.

Black zones are also allegedly filled with unimaginable treasures, from wellsprings of pure magic to fully operational spaceships left behind by parties unknown, so some reckless, insane or suicidally brave venturing parties have delved into the woods specifically to find a black zone. Some have returned without ever reaching their goal, others have not returned at all.
 

Smalltown Grove by SebastianBockisch

There are very few safe(ish) routes through the woods.

A so called "caravan trail" leads westward from the icy lake of Hori, skirting the North Mountains before plunging into the deep woods. Once built with massive expenditure of gold and lives, it is the safest way of crossing the forest. As the name suggests, it is frequently used by trade caravans travelling to the western lands, and the prodigious tolls they pay for the passage are in turn spent on maintaining the road and all associated facilities. The road itself is embanked and paved with stone, or raised on wooden platforms over the marshy parts of the forest, and followed by a line of lamp posts. A company of lamplighters, well-trained and well-armed professionals of some combat prowess, light these lamps every night to keep the monsters at bay and provide guidance to late travellers.

However, few people will travel the caravan trail at night, when the lurking danger is most oppressing and imminent. There is a series of safe houses built roughly a day's journey apart along the road, once again maintained from the travelling tolls. They offer shelter, lodging and stabling, and oftentimes are full-fledged inns, except enclosed in high walls. Most explorers wishing to venture deeper into the forest will first take the caravan trail to one of these houses, and the most popular adventuring sites will have a safe house with a blacksmith, salesmen or middlemen for nearly anything an adventurer might need, and probably even a brothel.

Deep in the red zone.

 
There are other roads in the Unchartable Woods, but rarely can you be sure that they won't disappear halfway through, that no monster made a lair right by the path, or that they still lead to their original destination. The woods and erratic and perilous, and many a pioneer was lost trying to find their own way and map the Unchartable Woods.

Apart from the roads, a railroad cuts a more or less straight line southwest from the shunned town of Prosperity all the way through the forest to the city of Algherra far west, every meter of its rails etched with runes of warding and pathfinding. Its construction was a great success for the mechanists of the shunned towns, and the newly opened business opportunities made Prosperity truly live up to its name.

The railroad constitutes the fastest route through the Unchartable Woods, but as of late the number of bandit and monster attacks have been increasing rapidly. Thus there is always work for adventurers willing to hire themselves out as train guards or protection for railway work crews.

Finally, a rare sight indeed is one of the western blimps soaring high above the trees.
 

d6 Quests in the Woods

1. A train loaded with black hole metal ingots is soon to depart from Prosperity, and the proprietor is looking for some top-class guards to protect the incredibly valuable cargo. Or maybe the PCs would rather like to lay a trap to the train once it's far enough from civilisation?
2. An entrepreneur has gained a licence to open a branch of the Hobling Postal Service in the far West. Now all she needs is a group of people willing to repeatedly make the highly hazardous journey through the Unchartable Woods, and loose not a single letter.
3. A caravan owner is looking for mercenaries, but she has a secret. The caravan will be transporting a highly unusual cargo - twenty cages of various monsters for the gardens of the satrapa of Y'Thalla. Surely nothing will go wrong and the caravan will attract no unwelcome attention from either the customs officers or the monsters of the woods.
4. A well-known adventurer was murdered in one of the safe houses after returning from two unusually successful ventures within a single month, and claiming to possess an enchanted map of the woods that actually works. Is it true or was he just a lucky braggart? Who has the map now? And most importantly, how can you profit?
5. Bartholomew Benjamin Harper, a lizard noblemen and explorer, has gone missing on his trip over the forest in a balloon. His sister Priscilla Elinor Harper is offering a rich reward for a successful rescue mission, or at least for confirming his death and returning the family signet ring that would allow her to take over the whole family wealth.
6. A hobling general is offering a generous pay to anyone who enlists for an expedition into the woods, to assess the danger of the deepest reaches. The party discovers the truth far too late: The general fell into disgrace with the hobling emperor and was given a choice. Either be exiled and forever tarnish the honour of his extended family, or die as a hero on a bogus expedition. No one is supposed to return alive.

Rules Worth Stealing

Reading through the rulebook of Encounter Critical, I happened upon several rules that I wouldn't mind in the least to see adapted in other games.

 

Low Attributes, High Skills
Rolling low for attributes is infuriating. Sure, such character is still playable, but it's hard to shake the feeling they are bad because of the low scores.

In Encounter Critical, low attribute scores boost some of your skills - low Strength gives bonus to Logic and Scholarship, low Robotic Nature increases your chances of Seduction, etc. As you'll be rolling your skills much more often than attributes, low stats don't make your character worse, just specialised in different direction.
 

Adventuring party as should be!

Class Quests
Every class in Encounter Critical has its own inbuilt mini-quest that must be finished before you can increase in level. Quoth the rules:

• A warrior cannot go up a level until he defeats an equal or more powerful foe using a new kind of weapon.
• A criminal cannot go up a level until he commits a new kind of crime.
• A pioneer cannot go up a level until he discovers a new locale or secret of the wild.
• A psi witch cannot go up a level until she wins a battle blind.

There is even a place on the character sheet to write the deeds down, so the player can later review what helped them achieve their levels. Not only does this add a layer of flavour and personality, it also doubles as easy back story if you make your players come up with the deeds that raised them from 0th level NPCs to level 1 adventurers.

 

Cyaborg planetary ape.

 
Great Companion

Every warrior eventually attracts a great companion. This will be a monster mount such as griffin or space monster (25%), an equestrian mount of great endurance and intelligence (50%) or a shield mate, a warrior or like mind and half the warrior's own level, who is absolutely loyal (25%). This occurs when the warrior gains a level, but the exact time is uncertain. There is 15% odds each new level; those odds do not accumulate. Roll every time the warrior goes up in one level. The warrior's great companion is once in a lifetime.

For any swords & sorcery game, this rule is pure gold.

Amazon warrior and her great companion,
from High Couch of Silistra.