Locks as Monsters

What if different difficulty of locks had different hit dice?  And specific locks had hit points, even armor classes?  Then roguish characters could roll a special lock "attack" to "hit" a lock and do a certain amount of damage per "hit."  This "attack" would go up with level.

Not too different in conception from rolling against a percentage chance, but it would be more familiar with players.  It should be more clear that some locks will take multiple rounds to get through, that some locks might be "unhittable" or unbreakable for this rogue at this level.

And if you imagine that these locks are crude and require scraping and banging on, then rolling for wandering monsters each round could be a thing.  And players should have a good sense of how many rounds it would take to "defeat" a lock.

Silhouettes LVI

Even more silhouettes.  What can I say, I've got them.  I'll probably post more game-centric stuff soon.  First, another hireling, a bearer with a barrel:

Then this fellow:

I think that was a German idea of an indigenous person back in the day, but it works for me as a jaunty traveller.

Thanks to Jose's suggestion I went back to the book I got the village pics from and pulled out more (though, the bridge didn't look very bridge-like to my eye).

A windmill:

A wagon:

And by combining the wagon with another old building, I have what might function as a trading post:

Does that look  like a trading post to you?  Maybe I should put some bales or barrels around or in the wagon?

Here is a Tipi:

I want to find another, slightly different, so I can make an icon for an encampment.  These are all in the public domain so do what you wish with them.  I've included them as vector graphics in the zip file linked in my sidebar to the right.

Silhouettes LV - Village

I've been looking forever for an icon to use for villages on a campaign map.  I think I found something that will work.  I'll give you the original pics too because they may be of use in their own right:

The hut unfortunately has a shadow of the reverse page.  Here are the same two images in grayscale:

Here they are as single silhouettes:
The Church:

A hut:

And here I've put them together in two ways:
Village A:

Village B:

So, could those work for you?  Which do you prefer?  They could also both be flipped horizontally.  Let me know.  These images are all in the public domain, use them as you wish.  I've included vector graphics of the silhouettes in the zip file linked in the sidebar to the right.

Silhouettes LIV - Map Symbols

Today we'll swing back toward the original reason I started making these-- for maps.  I've long had a vision in my head of a dungeon map that conveys most of the information the DM needs visually, no words to read during play.  But it has taken me years to try and cobble together the tools to do it.  Still haven't found everything I want.  But the following might be useful.  First, the things I tend to drop around my maps most, are what I consider toys, the magic items that let's players do new stuff:

potions:

rings:

and wands:

I'd add scrolls, but I haven't found a good way to represent them in silhouette yet.  The idea is to place them on the map and then remember at a glance "oh, this is the room with the ring . . ."  I usually can improv interesting details from there.  If there is more than one, which there often is for my potion caches, I'll use a number by the map image.  That comes from ZakS's idea to track keys that way, or was it scrolls?  Either way, it works.

Speaking of keys, here is a lock and key:

I want to add different key images, but this is a start.

The rest are possible dungeon features:
barrels for the Diablo fans:

webs:

a cocoon:

eggs:

an anvil:

and a cauldron:

 

I'm not really thinking of these as illustrations, that you would make an illustrated map and place the barrel wherever there is one in the dungeon, but as symbols.  So, the barrel reminds you of a room full of barrels, the web of a particular corridor so filled with webs it's an obstacle.

Others I have in mind are trap, ladder, fountain, and arch.  Suggest others if you have them.  Eventually I plan to put up a dungeon for you all, that is solely visual and see how it translates.

These are all in the public domain, use them as you wish.  I've put them in the "misc" folder of my vector graphics zip file linked in my sidebar to the right.

Silhouettes LIII

Haves more, folks.  Small animal edition.  These are mostly for me to use on terrain sheets to show my players what small game is available.  I know I could just use a number but it's one of those instances where that's a bit too abstract for my tastes.  I'd like pheasants in some places and guineafowl in others in my world and have players know that.

Anyway, these are all public domain use them as you wish.

First, another goat:

A screech owl:

A rabbit:

A pheasant:

A guineafowl:

A quail:

A songbird:

And a couple iconic insects that I've never done.  The first because it never occured to me as I was mostly concentrating on threatening monster types and the second because it took me a long time to find a good image.

A  butterfly:

A dragonfly:

As always, these have all been added as vector graphics to the zip file linked in my sidebar to the right.