Misc IX

Update
With this post, only 18 left till my 1000th.  Yikes.  I have been working on lots of blog stuff, though there seems to be too many things I need to make at once.  I'm trying to work out a systematic way to handle intelligent opposition, or at least how to record on a map what guards will do and such.  I've also been working on my sandbox.  I can't put it off any more.  I think I'll have to just shrink the size of what I present to my players tonight to a couple day's walk in all directions.  I've prepared tons of simple cavern complexes.  Now I need to figure out ways to distinguish them so they don't function as quantum caves of a sort.

I've got more silhouettes ready in the pipe, but they're mostly animals and harmless things.  I'd like to find another monster or some savage Amazonian women before I do another post.  Going up into the mountains tomorrow.

Shuffledice
It could be fun to set up a game of player skill where they resolve something-- maybe gambling in a tavern or magical research-- by tossing a dice on a piece of paper and trying to get it to land somewhere without rolling off the paper.  I wouldn't want that to be a common mechanic, just something unique to make certain resolutions feel different and to keep my players guessing.

Tree Ring Scrying
The reading of information from tree rings isn't a new idea, but I realized how closely a cut stump looked like the trackless wastes hex:

So, a ranger or player with wilderness knowledge who is lost can take an hour to find and cut down a suitable tree.  Then, by looking at the rings they will know exactly where in a hex they are.

Feats like Encumbrance
I handle encumbrance as a simple list, once you fill up all your slots you have to drop something.  What if special abilities were treated like this.  Maybe characters in the game can learn how to shapeshift, go berzerk in battle, or raise undead, but they can only know 4 abilities at a time.  In a way it would be like Vancian spell picking, or socketed items in Diablo.  But these would be abilities not spells.  Players would have to choose, unrelated to class or level, what they want to be able to do.