A pressure plate or hair-thin tripwire on the far side of a door triggers deadly frost rays to shoot from the door frame at whatever is passing through it.
The first person to pass through the doorway is safe, but anyone or anything immediately following is blasted with 1d8 cold damage. The pre...
Shortly after reading a book on Fermat's last theorem, I convinced myself that I was the appropriate audience for pop mathematics books. You know the kind of book I mean: they're not text books, but pithy and friendly tales mixing history with whimsy with a brief peak in at the technical stuff. Jus...
This appears as a full set of plate mail armor, which, if tested for, will radiate magic. It has a +3 magical bonus on it, adding to the wearer's AC and Saving Throws. It may be removed easily at this stage. Testing for curses may or may not reveal the armor's true nature (GM's choice). The magic o...
The trapped area is quite large, and has a very high ceiling. Carvings on the wall depict storm clouds and lightning. Upon triggering, dark magical clouds appear in the corridor/room overhead, and begin dropping torrential rain and lightning on the characters. Anyone in the area has a 50% chance of...
A mirror, should the eldest living creature in the room look into it, shatters violently for 1d6 piercing and slashing damage, and a 50% chance of blindness for 1 hour.
Optionally, to add insult to injury, if you own the Tome of Beasts from Kobold Press, see the Mirror Hag on page 243 for an...
Therefore, Repent is a supremely unique and inventive and bold graphic novel, the likes of which I don't believe I shall ever see again.
The story's a post apocalyptic tale, quite literally, with angels roaming the street of the Earth, wearing combat helmets and bearing arms. It's a divine p...
One of the cool things Klaatu has cooked up for us with this blog is a way to load it with content, to be published on set dates in the future. Now, lots of blogging software allows for that sort of functionality, but our situation is unusual; we use the version control system Git on the back e...
These appear to be a bundle of twelve +2 arrows, which, if tested, will radiate magic, and if specifically tested for curses, will reveal their true nature (in practice, most groups don't seem to look for curses in arrows; that will likely change after this). Until used in a crisis, these arrows...
Spellcasters and Thieves only. A particularly nasty item, this appears as an ornate ring with a magical aura. If tested, it will seem to be a ring of great power and utility. The Ring Of Severing will always have a spell function such as Fireballs, Flying, Teleportation, etc.
The ring can be...
Yesterday, Klaatu and I worked on rolling up a character for Starfinder. We recorded it for a future Hacker Public Radio episode, which he volunteered to edit. Klaatu was traveling that day, and we got ready to record once he got settled in his motel room. It was a comedy of errors at first, d...
When triggered, exits seal up, and the entire corridor/room moves to another level of the dungeon, whereupon the exits unseal. Try as they might, the characters cannot get the elevator to function again. Characters who've been diligently mapping will have no idea where they are.
gray framed...
INTRODUCTION
Right off the bat, it's important to understand that every GM is different. No two styles of running a game match completely, nor should they. And while there is no one correct way to run a game, there are plenty of ways to do it poorly. The GM wears many hats, but in my opinion, th...
When triggered, the floor begins rapidly moving forward like a magical conveyor belt, and a gate or hatch opens on the far end, revealing an active blast furnace. Characters have only 1 to 2 minutes (50-50% chance) to figure something out, or be incinerated.
Characters ending up in the furnace...
When triggered, all characters within a four square radius randomly switch consciousness, no Saving Throw allowed. The characters are still all themselves, even though they look like other people. They retain their old skills (including prepared spells), but must now contend with new bodies, includ...
When triggered, any exits seal up, and the walls (made of metal or stone, of course) begin moving in. Characters have 5 minutes to either jam, disarm, or deactivate the trap.
Jamming might be possible with metal spikes, which take one minute each to set (though multiple characters may do so at...