A follow up to my previous post, here are some examples of how I determine what player characters may find in Limbo.

Eras (1d20)

1-2) Stone Age

3-6) Bronze Age

7-14) Iron Age

15-16) Rebirth

17) Machine Age

18) Information Age

19) Genomic Age

20) Stars Age

Genres (1d30)

1-15) Fantasy

15-20) Horror

21-24) Science Fiction

25-27) Comedy

28) Romance

29) Tragedy

30) Mystery

4/16- Bronze Age/Horror: The PCs discover some clay tablets that, if translated properly, provide instructions on how to summon an elder god. He was a god of farming back then but was somehow corrupted and sent to the Abyss. Now he creates toxic weeds and monstrous plants. None of this is on the tablet as it was written before his fall.

9/12- Iron Age/Fantasy: The PCs discover a field of broken plows dragged by phantom horses. Casting Dispel Magic on the horses makes them real and such beasts are not frightened by the conditions of Limbo or any other source of fear.

15/20- Rebirth/Horror: In a wooden box covered with “do not open” in many languages, the PCs find a spyglass. They work normally as long as nothing monstrous is observed. When that happens, the viewer must make a saving throw, failure results in transforming into a copy of the monster.

19/26- Genomic Comedy: A chicken tries to cross a path but keeps getting lost, circling back to where it started. As the PCs watch it, the bird becomes more and more frustrated, eventually “hulking out” and transforming into a cockatrice. Which still can’t get across the path, so it goes after the PCs.

17/29- Machine Tragedy: A monitor, connected to nothing, displays a Dear John email. Casting Sending, Message or a similar spell on it allows the caster to write to anyone in the address book, which could include powerful wizards who travel the planes, unbeknownst to most.

19/30/20- Genomic Mystery Horror: On a small table there are three clamshells. The person who lifts the first has Detect Disease upon them and gains the knowledge they are going to die from some horrific plague (that happened to be on the shell’s surface). The person who lifts the second shell also has Detect Disease, but in this case become a lycanthrope (1d6: 1) wereserpent, 2) werespider, 3) werehorseshoe crab, 4) werebee, 5) werexorn, 6) werecarp). The person who lifts the third shell has Detect Evil cast upon them and learns they have become a host to a demonic maggot that has taken up residence in their skull. It whispers horrible things when the character tries to sleep (treat as Nightmare spell once per week).

1/28- Stone Age Romance: On a tree there are several tanned animal hides placed in an esthetic manner on the branches. If Summon Animal, Nature’s Ally or similar spell is cast upon one of the hides, it becomes an animal companion for the caster as long as they remain in Limbo.

20/29/30- Stars Tragedy Mystery: There is a house-sized machine that has an access door that is sitting in a pond of yellow and blue goo. The goo is the remains the ship’s crew, but there is so much more (blood?) than what the crew’s bodies could have contained.