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jay@vanishingtowerpress.com

Sunday, December 3

Sword & Sorcery Random Background Generator

Rolling for your starting character's background in USR Sword & Sorcery is really easy. Done in two rolls. The work comes from the Player and the Crypt Keeper agreeing on what the background details mean. 

Still, Logan Knight's Random Table Generator is so simple to use I can't but help automate this process with the - 



Saturday, December 2

Additional OSR Spells for Clerics of Odxit

On page 129 of Petty Gods Revised & Expanded Edition is the god Odxit. I'm currently writing up an old school dungeon crawl through a forgotten shrine to this forgotten god. This has prompted me to wonder what abilities would be unique to the god of unexplained smells, and how would this translate into unique spells for this type of cleric to cast?


The Eldolon of Inexplicable Odor provides its Clerics with the following additional spells. They become available to the cleric per the usual spell acquisition rules particular to your campaign.

Level 1

Produce Aroma; Range 120', Duration 2 turns/per level. The cleric is able to produce any smell they have experienced directly, pleasant or foul. It will occupy a volume of space up to 30' in diameter.

Seduce; Range 30', Duration 12 turns. Only affects members of the same species as the caster. The cleric is able to produce pheromones which will make the target of the spell have positive feelings towards the caster. Any reaction roll will be at a +2, +4 if making sexual advances.

Befriend Animal; Range Self, Duration 12 turns. The cleric is able to produce pheromones which will make all animals of a similar type to be friendly, or at least not hostile, towards the caster. The effect moves with the caster and extends 30' feet in all directions.

Level 2

Predict Weather; Range Self, Duration 12 turns. The cleric knows what weather can be expected in the immediate area (10 square miles) for the next two hours.

Level 3

Conjure Wind; Range 60', Duration 1 round. The cleric casts a gust of wind approximately 50 mph.  This gust will do anything a sudden blast of air would cause; candle and torches to blow out, fan a fire, heel over a sailboat, etc.

Level 4

Wall of Smell; Range 120', Duration 1 round/level. The cleric creates an opaque wall of smell up to 60' long, 20' high and 1' thick. How the wall smells is up to the caster. If the smell is noxious or otherwise intolerable a Save vs. Spells is required for anyone to pass through the magical barrier. If the smell be pleasing those who can smell it must Save vs. Spells or approach the barrier and sniff it for 1d6 rounds. The summoning cleric may choose any person within his range of smell to remain unaffected by this magic.

Kellen Vapor; Range 120', Duration 1 turn/level. This discreet vapor is breathed outwards by the cleric and invisibly charms the target with any chosen emotional state. The cleric is using smell to trigger overpowering or important experiences and past memories which would trigger the chosen emotional state. This doesn't convey any knowledge of the personal experience. It isn't a form of mind reading. Failing a Saving Roll and the degree felt is up to the caster. Pass the Saving Roll and the caster may only add or subtract one (+1/-1) to the next reaction roll against the target.

Level 5

Gognogulla Bile; Range Self, Duration 1 round. The cleric is in direct commune with Odxit. The resulting experience prompts the cleric to vomit violently for the round after casting. The paroxysm of the cleric's senses  provides an omen about the results of a specific course of action within the next 3 turns.

Friday, December 1

Ye Olde English Random Name Generator Text File



Yesterday I was unable to post both random name generator links in the same blog post. I ended up with posting one functional Male Name Generator in the post while the link for Female Names took you to a separate page on this blog.

The most elegant solution is for those interested to have their very own bookmarked link generated from the Last Gasp Random Table Generator on their own browser. Therefore I'm posting up the text files you need to just copy and past into the table making java tool to accomplish this.






Ye Olde English Random Name Generator

While Forgive Us has a nifty table for generating random names for your Norwich adventures, with only twenty surnames and first names I started getting some repetitive results as the campaign marches on.  I needed something which would give me many more names. Like thousands!

Fortunately sites like Last Gasp provide the answer with the ability to make your own home-grown random generator of whatever you like!

While this way cool tool does have some built in limitations, Zak S. recommends Text Mechanic web site. It allows you to generate text files of every combination of table entries so you can import this back into your random table generator and avoid its individual table entry limits.

I then googled seventeenth century names to compile a large list of names. This has given me over 22,000 possible male names and just over 10,000 female names.

I'm trying to get the links to work right here in blogger and having some difficulty so bear with me.