Use 100 Oddities for an Enchanted Forest in your game THIS weekend!
Skirmisher Publishing just released 100 Oddities for an Enchanted Forest, the latest in our bestselling line of 100 Oddities products (currently bundles at half cover price) that help GMs tune up their game sessions and encounters. I love lists like this, came up with the original idea a couple of years back, and we are currently on #8 in the series, with plans for a bunch more in the near future. And even though I helped write them, I use them regularly around the game table.
So I thought I would give you a taste of 100 Oddities for an Enchanted Forest by following the recommended method for its use!
I will do that by rolling d100 a few times and see what we come up with, theyndo a little brainstorming to tie the Oddities together into a loose narrative. What you will see below are actual oddities from the Enchanted Forest. But don't worry. I will roll up three Oddities, that leaves you with 97 more to explore. Here goes:
First one out of the gate:
98: Lightning strikes a nearby tree, splitting its ancient bole into two smoking halves. Within the smoldering wood sleeps a babe swaddled in a blanket with the texture of ferns.
OKAAAY - this one provides a number of hooks, and questions, that a canny GM can exploit for an evenings entertainment - or an ENTIRE CAMPAIGN! one of the best ways to use a 100 Oddities product is to ask, and try to answer, those questions. Is the baby human or not, god or mortal? The Child of Storms (whatever you decide THAT means!). With such a birth, clearly the infant is meant for great - or terrible - things! What will the heroes of our story do when confronted with the issue of a babe in arms? Does the lightning stop? Or does it get nearer and nearer to striking the PCs, only ceasing suddenly when they lift the newborn from remains of the tree?
Next one:
79: Wild Hunt: A hunter’s arrow juts from the bole of a nearby tree. It appears to be new, of extremely fine manufacture, and to radiate a subtle magic. If this or another Wild Hunt oddity is rolled the hunters draw nearer. On the fourth such roll, the Wild Hunt has found the Party.
After having witnessed a miraculous lightning delivery, the heroes come upon an obviously magical arrow, impaled in the bole of a tree? Was it just shot? Or has the tree begun to grow around the wound? Is an ambush imminent? Do they heroes have the lightning child with them? If so, how will that affect their actions in the face of attack? Do the heroes even recognize the arrow as being a signal of the Wild Hunt
Another thing (actually the first thing) is the Wild Hunt notation that sub-titled this oddity. In 100 Oddities for an Enchanted Forest, the term "Wild Hunt" in an entry triggers a subset of activity in the Enchanted Forest - The Wild Hunt is coursing through the forest seeking prey! Scattered through out the 100 Oddities in this book are a number that relate to the Wild Hunt. When you roll one, the Wild Hunt becomes aware of your heroes passage though their hunting ground and adds you to the list of possible quarry? Each time thereafter that a WIld Hunt oddity is rolled, the Hunt draws nearer: Hunting hors sound, hounds bay, etc. On the fourth such oddity, the Hunt finds its prey!
What is the Wild Hunt? Whatever you decide; It might be the god of the underworld searching for souls to gather! a devil in hunting clothes seeking out the wicked! Fey lords and ladies questing for interlopers, or another explanation that suits your world (we give you some helpful hints on the nature of the Wild Hunt and how to implement it in the appendix of the book).
Combining the two Oddities presents new questions: Is the Hunt searching for the Lightning Child, and if so, to what purpose? It is easy to envision a mad dash through the Enchanted Forest, staying one step ahead of the Wild Hunt, all the while trying to keep a newborn fed, silent and safe! Or maybe the Hunt is responsible for placing the child with the PCs, and chases them from the forest with a terrible lightning storm (or the resulting Wild fire)! Again, why?!
Last roll for now:
16: A party of 1d8+1 poachers creep through the woods. There are equal chances that they are hunting mythical creatures for sport, harvesting rare spell components from enchanted fauna, or were killed by a wrathful lord of the wilds and now wander the forest eternally only to die at the hands of vengeful beasts every night.
The heroes come across a band of poachers, as desperate as are the heroes themselves. Will they use them as a distraction for the Hounds of the Wild Hunt? Or will they team up with them? Which fate awaits the poachers, and will the PCs share in it? And what of the Lightning Child? If the heroes did not take her, perhaps the poachers found her and are now running for the safety of the nearest town. maybe they know the way out of the Enchanted Forest. or have some knowledge that keeps the Wild Hunt at bay! Or maybe they were sent to retrieve the miraculous infant and lay an ambush for the Heroes. Or maybe the poachers have already been slain by the Wild Hunt and don't even know it.
With a few rolls and some time to think about them, we have come up with the structure for an evening's entertainment, or even an entire campaign. And there are 97 more Oddities in the Enchanted Forest!
How does your group's next trek trough the woods go?
