Stuff to check out!

Gallimaufry

Gallimaufry is a collection of 18 (and counting) items for Troika!

The item descriptions are free/PWYW, readable as HTML within the itch product page itself, for easy rules referencing during online play. A print-friendly PDF will be forthcoming once I decide the item collection is finished. The items are also licensed CC-BY 4.0 so feel free to adapt and remix into your own rulesets and modules, including ones sold commercially.

Bestiarum Geondica

Bestiarum Geondica is a bestiary that's free to download. @NateTreme made a simple monster-name generator and crowdsourced people to write tweet-length descriptions of monsters they'd rolled up. The Bestiarum collects 100 descriptions (including two by me) along with the generator tables. It's an excellent read! BYO stats, populate your next hexcrawl or campaign setting with them, you won't regret it.

Magic Items for Troika

Some of these items are from recent twitter threads, others have been sitting in my draft folder for ages. Once I have enough of them (thirty-six?), I'll release them as a CC-BY pdf, probably with an alternate version statted for Knave.

EDIT: I've released the first 18 items as an itch page, available to read for free/PWYW. PDF forthcoming.

If you haven't checked out Troika! yet, its itch product page links to a google-doc SRD you can read for free. If you want to convert them to other systems, the main things you need to know are:

• Luck is a character's "fortune and intuition", functioning much like saving throws in other games. To Test your Luck, roll 2d6 equal-or-below your current Luck score. Regardless of success or failure, you then decrease your Luck by 1. Roll 1d6+6 for starting Luck, this never improves. You heal 2d6 Luck with an 8-hour rest (but never go over starting Luck).
• To make a Skill Test, roll 2d6 equal-or-below your relevant Skill Total, which for beginning characters will be a number ranging between 4 and 9. For opposed Skill Tests, each character rolls 2d6 + their relevant Skill Total, highest wins.
• Encountered monsters and other NPCs have a 1d6 Mien table. This works similarly to an old-school reaction roll, except that Mien results often can't be ranked from best to worst. Would you rather encounter a Suspicious troll or a Spiteful troll?

1. Bootstrapping Boots
2. Cuckoo Spell
3. Edible Brooch
4. Minimus Egg
5. Orpheus Mirror
6. Remembrance Shard
7. Seaglass Ring
8. Seasoning Orb
9. Starsnuff
10. Zinn's Annulus

Bootstrapping Boots

Knee-high boots that walk around of their own volition. Each sunrise, they walk next to their last wearer and nudge them awake. They will do this multiple times a day on worlds with multiple suns. If the last wearer refuses to get up, the boots deploy bootstraps to hoist them upright.

Cuckoo Spell

A grapefruit-sized gelatinous orb of roiling energy, that slowly shuffles around on little cilia. Roll on the Random Spell chart to determine which spell it contains.

Harmless to someone who doesn't know any Spells. Such a person can handle and throw the orb, which has a 4-in-6 chance of rupturing on impact, releasing the spell.

If handled by a spellcaster, the Cuckoo Spell will fuse with them, stealing the skill ranks of whichever Spell the person knows that has the fewest ranks (break ties at random). The old Spell withers and is forgotten. The Cuckoo Spell ignores spellcasters who already know the contained spell.

The spellcaster can Test their Luck to avoid this. If they succeed, they fling the Cuckoo Spell off them before it successfully fuses. The same 4-in-6 chance of rupture applies.

Edible Brooch

This cloak pin is set with delicious-looking gummy jewels. Pluck one out and eat it, or toss it at a creature. Depending on their Mien, the creature might eat the gummy (e.g. if they are Hungry or Curious) or ignore it (e.g. Suspicious). If Mien gives little indication, the creature must Test their Luck or eat the gummy.

Each time you pluck out a jewel, cross out one of the boxes next to its colour.

Red ❏❏

You hiccup fire. This is a a melee weapon dealing damage as a Beastly Weapon appropriate to your size (Most characters will use Modest Beast). Test Your Luck whenever you want to do an action in combat other than hiccup fire, or whenever you attempt something involving flammable objects. Lasts 1 hour.

Blue ❏❏

You melt into a quasi-liquid. Must make a Climb Test to ascend even the gentlest slopes. Can flow through small holes and crevices. Lasts 1 hour.

Green ❏❏

You become a plant. Lose any ranks you have in Acrobatics. For each rank lost, roll a d3 and gain a rank in the corresponding Advanced Skill:

1. Climb
2. Healing
3. Poison

You can subsist on just water and light in the short term, and in the long term only require a source of minerals. This is permanent.

White ❏❏❏

You become so preoccupied with the finality of death, of utterly ceasing to be, that you will do anything to avoid dying or killing. You are a total pacifist and will not fight unless completely cornered. Lasts 1 hour.

Minimus Egg

This egg is porcelain-white. If you handle it, you feel a strong parental instinct — you must Test your Luck to act on any desire to abandon or destroy it.

Incubate the egg, and its shell will slowly turn the colour of your skin. It hatches into a tiny clone of you in 6 days. The clone is helpless when newly-hatched. In another 6 days, the fledgling clone is mature, but never grows taller than your handspan.

Roll Skill, Stamina and Luck for the clone, as normal for a new character. The GM decides which aspects (if any) of your Background are genetically heritable. Due to their size, they take no damage from falls.

You have no special control or influence over the new being. They may accompany you or strike out on their own (particularly if mistreated). Write a Mien table for it, with the GM's approval.

Orpheus Mirror

This mirror's reflection reveals the presence of ghosts and other incorporeal undead, even invisible ones. It also reveals if a creature is possessed by such a spirit.

If a loved one (this love need not be romantic) dies, you can hold the mirror, declare why you care about this person, and it will show you one of the countless hidden ways to the Underworld. This allows you a single attempt to retrieve your love. Your love must not have been dead for longer than a year. You do not require their remains.

You must go alone. This journey to the Underworld does not obey the normal rules of time. For the mortal world, the journey takes an hour. For you, it could be days, or months. You do not need to eat or drink during this time.

The journey is resolved with a single roll. Test your Luck, and note whether the die results match. Then pick the appropriate number of outcomes from the list below.

Success and Doubles. Choose one.
Success. Choose two.
Fail. Choose four.
Failure and Doubles. All outcomes.

• The mirror is destroyed in the attempt.
• You must give away something of great value. Gold has no value in the Underworld.
• Your love is unwilling to leave. You can force them to do so.
• Despite your efforts, your love must stay behind.
• You must stay behind.

Remembrance Shard

A pottery fragment, edges razor-sharp, inscribed with "Emrick". At night, smear it with a drop of your blood and speak the word to conjure the spectre of a friendly dog. Invisible, warm, heavy, he fades at the next sunrise. Has a 1-in-6 chance of knowing any given one-word trick (keep a record of tricks he knows).

Seaglass Ring

While you wear this ring, your flesh look a bit more translucent than normal. Immersing body parts in water turns them completely transparent; only a faint green tint and the refractive index of glass visually betrays their presence. Clothing and equipment is unaffected.

While underwater (and naked), you roll Sneak Tests with a Skill Total of 3 + your Skill. If you already have at least 3 ranks in Sneak, you instead add +1 to your normal Skill Total.

Seasoning Orb

A basketball-sized wooden sphere with a single groove around its equator. If dropped, it will land on an angle matching the world's axial tilt, assuming a spheroidal world (see below).

The two hemispheres can spin around the groove like a pepper grinder. Present the Orb to a plant and grind it through 90 degrees, and the plant will advance one season. This happens over 10 minutes, causing blossoming, fruiting, shedding leaves etc as appropriate for its species. This will not cause a plant to mature faster or grow taller.

Overuse of an Orb can kill a plant. Any given plant may be advanced one season safely. Roll a d6 for each season beyond the first; on a 1, the plant dies.

Lesser Orbs don't function on nonspheroidal worlds, while the rare True Orbs will contort to match even the most exotic topology. A True Orb can be used as a navigational aid on such worlds with a successful Mathmology Test.

Starsnuff

Snort it for a taste of the numinous.

You connect to one of the many domains of the divine, and can siphon some of its power for a one-time magical effect. Most starsnuff connects to a random domain (roll below); only the most skilled of alchemists can refine starsnuff that connects to a specific desired domain.

Describe what magical effect you want to accomplish and the GM will tell you whether it falls under that divine sphere and how much Stamina it will cost. Then you can cast it following all the normal rules for Spells, except you must Test your Luck instead of your Skill.

The effects of starsnuff wear off once you successfully cast a Spell with it, or after an hour.

If you're lucky, you might be able to learn the Spell you cast, though the universe has an odd way of requiring a different amount of Stamina for the mortal version than was needed for the starsnuff version.

Starsnuff is a dangerous commodity illegal in many spheres. Repeated use risks the ire of the gods whose power you hijack, or the attention of the starry sea's many theurgotrophic life forms. Side-effects include dizziness, nosebleeds, delusions of godhood, and spiritual metamorphosis.

d66	Domain	d66	Domain	d66	Domain
11	Death	31	Terror	51	Desire
12	Ember	32	Ship	52	Mercy
13	Seed	33	Oath	53	Balance
14	Writing	34	Despair	54	Silver
15	Sun	35	Joy	55	Cat
16	Memory	36	Door	56	Medicine
21	Destruction	41	Skill	61	Dream
22	Time	42	Cave	62	Hearth
23	Ocean	43	Wine	63	Stone
24	Judgement	44	Luck	64	Destiny
25	Moon	45	Sphere	65	Alloy
26	Stamina	46	Tree	66	Delirium

Zinn's Annulus

This band of fibrous muscle was Zinn's final creation, before the vivimancer's accidental (?) demise.

The wearer's fingertip swells into a functioning eye, with the same size, visual acuity, and fragility of a typical human eye.

The ring is intelligent and can telepathically communicate with the wearer. If the wearer is asleep or comatose, the ring can seize control of their body. Whether the ring then acts in accordance with the wielder's goals depends on the ring's current Mien and any agreement or friendship between them.

The ring can also take control of animals, plants, or anything with fingerlike structures. Animals can only be possessed if their minds are sedated.

Mien

1. Devious
2. Curious
3. Grouchy
4. Condescending
5. Thoughtful
6. Hedonistic

Two More Randomly-Named Monsters (BX monsters)

See last post. @NateTreme is putting together a free zine of 100 tweet-length descriptions people have read, which looks sweet. I wrote the Chittering Skull Fly, while my partner wrote the description for the Pestilent Glow Weasel. The stats and Geegaw table are all mine, I hope they're useful for your game. The geegaw table in particular is well-suited for other trashbaby monsters like goblins.

Chittering Skull Fly

Fist-sized adult form inhabits a skeleton. Cranial cavity provides resonance for their tymbal clicks, fast enough to simulate the common tongue. Builds silk "tendons" to marionette the skeleton. Slow, deliberate movements, trading speed for torque.

(as Skeleton)

Armour Class: 7 [12]
Hit Dice: 1* (4hp)
Attacks: 1 × weapon (1d6 or by weapon, roll damage with advantage)
THAC0: 19 [+0]
Movement: 45’ (15’)
Saving Throws: D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (as 1 HD monster)
Morale: 8
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 13
Number Appearing: 2d6 (5d6)
Treasure Type: C

• Lair: Roughly half of the 5d6 flies found in a lair will be naked, the rest will be skeleton-piloting flies.
• Slow and Strong: Makes damage rolls with advantage (roll damage dice twice and use the highest). Can break through doors with 1d3 rounds of effort even if held shut with iron spikes; can overcome hold portal spells by 1st-level casters (i.e. as a 4 HD creature). Can carry up to 200 lb (2,000 coins).

(as naked Fly)

Armour Class: 9 [12]
Hit Dice: 1 (4hp)
Attacks: 1 × bite (1 damage)
THAC0: 19 [+0]
Movement: 45’ (15’) / 75’ (25’) flying
Saving Throws: D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (as 1 HD monster)
Morale: 6
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 10
Number Appearing: 1d3 (5d6)
Treasure Type: C

• Lair: Roughly half of the 5d6 flies found in a lair will be naked, the rest will be skeleton-piloting flies. Treasure in a lair used to be the grave goods buried with each skeleton. The flies have no use for nonmagical treasure, but understand humans enough to trade with them.

Pestilent Glow Weasel

A clever child-sized mustelid. Carrion & refuse feeder, it's skills as a scrounger & thief are useful to some. Proudly filthy, notorious for spreading disease with bites & scratches, its fur is covered in bioluminescent fungus which it eats during lean times

Armour Class: 9 [10]
Hit Dice: 2 (9hp)
Attacks: 1 × bite or scratch (1d3 + disease), or 1 × junk-sword (1d8, breaks on a natural 8)
THAC0: 18 [+1]
Movement: 90’ (30’)
Saving Throws: D12 W13 P14 B15 S16 (as 2 HD monster)
Morale: 5
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 20
Number Appearing: 1d6 (1d6)
Treasure Type: V, plus one roll each on Geegaws, below

• Disease: Bite has a 1-in-6 chance of infecting the target (save versus poison). Incubation time is 2 days, followed by up to a month of fever, vomiting, swollen joints and lymph nodes, and purple rashes around the infected area (-2 to all rolls, naturally heal at half the normal rate). The disease has a 1-in-6 chance of death, which occurs in 2d6 days after onset.
• Immunity: Immune to most poisons and diseases. Any specific poison/disease has only a 1-in-6 chance of affecting them as a species, in addition to any saving throw called for.
• Luminescent: Fungus growing on fur casts light in a 10' radius. Removed fungus keeps glowing for 1d6 days, but can be cultured on other mammalian hair or fur.
• Scrounger: Can find (but not remove) treasure traps, hear noise, and pick pockets as a 6th-level thief. Due to their luminescence, they are terrible at hiding, and carry too many scrounged geegaws to move silently.
  • Find Traps: 40%
  • Hear Noise: 3-in-6
  • Pick Pockets: 45%

Geegaws

1. Snapped wand, cerulean magic sparks at the break pose a fire hazard.
2. Beetle-shell lamellar "armour". Offers no protection, but quite pretty.
3. Mouldy loaf of bread. If consumed, equal odds of curing or causing disease, as the spell).
4. Slingshot and five dried dung-pellets.
5. Mangled paintbrushes and a bottle of vinegared egg yolk.
6. Diary of encountered fungi. Can answer a single question about every fungus encountered, 2-in-6 chance the answer is wrong.
7. Lamp oil stolen from humans, good for deep-frying.
8. Copper amulet covered in bite marks.
9. Vial of musk, a gift from a lover.
10. A spare junk-sword, 1d8 damage but breaks on a natural 8.
11. Bulky goggles, protect eyes but impede vision.
12. Badly magnetised compass, needle points a cardinal direction other than north. Roll d3: 1 = east, 2 = south, 3 = west.
13. A soft sugary roll, perfectly preserved in some sort of transparent film.
14. A clay jar full of live crickets.
15. moth-eaten linen shawl, bright yellow, embroidery now illegible.
16. A map of the dungeon level. Each secret door has a 50% chance of being known and marked, rooms only accessible by an unknown secret door are obviously not on the map.
17. A coconut goblet with silver foot and stem.
18. An Alagaësian Smuggle-Hamster, its cheeks are an extradimensional space that can hold 10 fl oz. (300 mL) of goods without showing any external bulge.
19. A pitted, wiggly-bladed dagger that glows blood-red. Nonmagical, the dagger is actually home to another bioluminescent fungus that metabolises iron, and will colonise nearby iron & steel objects.
20. Paper fortune-teller made from the torn-out sheet of a wizard's spellbook. Can do one accurate augury per person per month. Roll d8 or construct a fortune-teller with the following:
    1. Turn left.
    2. You will find riches soon.
    3. You will have good luck today.
    4. You will have bad luck today.
    5. Do a good deed today.
    6. An old friend will come calling.
    7. Love is in the air.
    8. Be careful on Tuesday.

Grinning Star-Wyrm (B/X monster)

This monster name was generated by @NateTreme's cool generator. Check out the other tweet-length monster descriptions, they're all great!

Grinning Star-Wyrm

Vestigial-winged, propels itself through vacuum through sheer plucky, can-do nature. Breathes a plume of capitalist work ethic and retail-smiles. Eats a mock meat made of ground, extruded asteroid, but sometimes cheats with the odd human.

Armour Class 0 [19]
Hit Dice 12** (54 hp)
Attacks [1 × bite (4d6), 1 tail slap (4d6)] or breath
THAC0 10 [+9]
Movement 90’ (30’) / 180’ (60’) flying
Saving Throws Death 6, Wands 7, Paralysis 8, Breath 8, Spells 10 (as 12 HD monster)
Morale 10 (4 during economic downturns)
Alignment Any
XP 2,700
Number Appearing 1 (1d4)
Treasure Type H

• Breath weapon: Cloud of stimulant gas (50’ long, 40’ wide, 20’ high). Save versus breath or be unable to rest for 2 days, or for 1 day if the grinning star-wyrm is at half-hp (27 hp) or less. This includes overnight rest necessary to heal and regain spells, and shorter rests during the day to avoid attack penalties, see Dungeon Adventuring: Resting. Characters affected are also immune to sleep for the duration, and their facial muscles tighten into an uncomfortable smile.
• Language and spells: 100%; 4 × 1st level, 4 × 2nd level, 4 × 3rd level.
• Open-Plan Office: All characters within the grinning star-wyrm's lair automatically succeed at Hear Noise rolls, but automatically fail Move Silently rolls. A silence 15' radius spell will negate this.
• Sleeping: 33%.

Typical Spells Prepared

• 1st: detect magic, purify food and water, ventriloquism¹ × 2
• 2nd: invisibility, phantasmal force¹ × 2, wizard lock
• 3rd: clairvoyance¹ × 2, haste, protection from normal missiles

¹ while in the grinning star wyrm's lair, this has a range of "anywhere else in the lair".

Sample Hoard

• 50,000 gp
• 40 necklaces. Each is a rounded rectangle made of silver, borne on a fine silver chain. Each is engraved with a tiny serial number but is otherwise blank. The first time the necklace is ever worn, parts of the rectangle magically darken to resemble a daguerrotype photo of the wearer's face. Each necklace is cursed, requiring the remove curse spell to remove.
• A mahogany box with a big button of solid ruby, and ivory dials which can be spun to show any four-digit number. Press the button and the silver necklace with that serial number will explode.
• A velvet-lined silver box, lid bears a repoussé apple tree. Holds a syringe made of platinum and rose quartz, and four glass ampoules: two potions of longevity, and two potions of cure disease (as the spell)