Zadron's Zocchi Dicebag

In Dragon #62, "Zadron'’s Pouch of Wonders" made its debut. It was a clever idea for an item that was essentially many items, but never for too long. I decided to kinda redo it a bit, with Zocchi dice and the DCC dice chain.

Description: A bag that contains some odd dice. If they are cast within an arcane ring, they summon an item from the ether. The arcane ring must be made by a character that can make a spell check. The character gets a bonus of+1 if 50 gp of gold was spent on materials for the circle, if their player brought libations for the gaming group, and/or if they brought foodstuffs to appease the game judge. The DC to make a successful arcane ring is 5. A fumble on the roll indicates that a Zocchi Demon comes to claim the dice bag (roll initiative, you fools!). said demon

Spell-check Results: ·  1: Fumble. ·  2-4: The bag does not spill its dice this day. Wait till the next dawn. ·  5+: Judge pulls a random item out of their favorite source. Or continue below. ·  5-10: Item level A ·  11-14: Item level B ·  15-18: Item Level C ·  19-24: Item Level D ·  25-30: Item Level E ·  32+: Item Level F Item impermanence: Any time you have an item, the dice disappear and you cannot use the bag while the item is here. The item stays in the local reality for a time. Each morning, roll a die, starting with a d30, and work your way down the dice chain as the days go on. If any die rolls a 1, the item disappears and the the dice return to the bag.

Level A (1 of 5 baubles): 1: Shuriken Sandwiches: 1d7 edible weapons. All pat-downs by TSA officers will find only sandwiches on your person, but when thrown, they are as sharp as shurikens. 2: Glitter Rock: Dazzles (no attacking, no Agility to AC) all viewers the first time they see it, barring a save. Any damage will bring afflicted ones to their senses. 3: Clay Ocarina: Entices boulders to roll where you ask. These are polite boulders that wait for people to clear a path, though they may be tricked into falling on someone. 4: Screaming Mimi: a sticky little blob that can be thrown with a ranged attack. Once it hits a surface, it will start screaming and be impossible to remove for duration. 5: Caustic Butt Beetle: Squeeze for ranged attack to blind a foe, who must make a DC 15 Will save to do anything other than clutch face. Beetle is empty until fed 1 gold coin. Level B (1 of 5 flutes): 1: Flute of Groot: All who hear the song of this flute must stop combat for a full turn. Everyone speaks in rhymes, even IRL, or takes 1 HD damage per line lacking ill rhymes. Judge has to do this too lest his NPCs start dying. 2: Aqualung: All, save for flautist, who hear must save or have their lungs fill with water. They will spend each round coughing up the water until the flautist relents, or die within Con save rounds if he does not. 3: Storm-piper: Summon a torrent of rain and lighting. Chance of ambush by any party in the area moot due to visibility, as is chance of finding one's way. 4: Killer Queen: Blow to summon the god Freddie. He will remove any one obstruction (especially mooks) by blasting through it like a shooting star. There's no stopping him. 5: Entrancing Pipes: All intended targets who hear will feel overwhelming compulsion to follow player as long as the PC can continue playing and nobody is threatening them (roll under Con save each turn to continue piping). Level C (1 of 6 pens): 1: Pen of Permanence: Can draw on any surface, and its mark never fades. 2: Pen of Penned Portals: can draw a door on any dungeon or underworld wall once day. Any door so drawn will lead to an immediately adjacent room, or, if there is not one, a 20x20 demiplane. 3: Pen is Mighter: If rubbed by a man of letters, it grows into a cudgel that automatically hits any foes who brandish swords. 4: Pen of Names: Anyone that uses this pen will end up writing naught but their true name (you know, that magics can take advantage of). 5: PEN 15 Club Scrawler: Any females who are pricked by this pen are physically transformed into a juvenile male of their species. 6: Infernal Quill: Any contracts written with this pen will contain a microdot that reads: Failure to fulfill the terms will  result in forfeiture of the signatory’s soul. Level D (1 of 6 bolas): 1: Ebola Bola: This bola will inflict upon any victim (that doesn’t save) a strange malady that involves blood loss. 2: Boomerang Bola: If this bola misses its intended target, re-roll the attack. If it still misses, it returns to the thrower’s hand. 3: Vorpal Bola: If this bola hits a target, determine a random body part on the target and it gets sliced off! If the wielder fumbles when throwing this one, the result becomes: lose 1d5 digits from your hand. 4: Shocking Bola: any target struck by this bola must make a save or pass out from paralyzing voltage. 5: Bola Birds: Never miss their target. Can be instructed to set up a trip-style ambush as well. 6: Banshee Bola: Can be thrown or simply spun above wielder's head in the air. Either way, its susurrations will attract any undead in the area.

  

Level E (1 of 7 picnic baskets) 1: Basket of Heads: 1d3 heads inside. They will give advice in one situation for each head, allowing an untrained person to use 4d6 on a skill check. Trained people don’t take advice from no stinking heads. 2: Basket of Feasting: Enough food to feed every party member,  all henchmen, and trusted animals to contentment 3 times a day. That same night, whoever chose to eat the sole fortune cookie included in the first meal will dream a portentous dream. 3: Basket of Bombs: Endless supply of spherical bombs (only procurable by holder though). They do 1 exploding d8 damage each. Exploding means keep rolling if die comes up 8. 4: Bastard in a Basket: Child within. Child is the chosen one. Any who are touched by the child heal 1 hit die. A group of evil humans will come looking to kill the child. It would be very bad for the world if that were to happen. 5: Basket of Hands: 2d14 ambulatory hands to do your bidding. The can poke at any eyes they find, blinding a target for a round. They have 1HP, speed 30, and 13 AC. 6: Basket of Hiding: Up to 13 human-sized creatures can fit inside this basket (along with held or worn items). The basket is no heavier than a bread loaf even when full, and the inhabitants can hear and peak through the wicker. It takes one round for any one person to pop out again. 7: Basket of Flaming Doom: If opened, this basket launches a torrent of flame at the opener that melts the very skin from their face.

Level F (1 of 7 ropes) 1: Hangman's Rope: Summon a creature similar to the hanged bogman, who will fight for you as long as you hold the rope. It ignores normal damage but dies to any critical hit. 2: Rope of Dice: If one lays this rope around a corner and waits quietly, a friendly Shmodron will come before long, munching the rope. It can be convinced to join in fighting until it dies or the rope disappears. It is of 1d20 sides. 3: Rope of Slime (30'): Can be wielded as a whip or lasso. Any beings besides the wielder touched by this rope will take 1d4 acid damage, and an acid residue,   that burns for 1d3 each round until a 1 is rolled for the damage, is left on them. 4: Lasso of Truth (50'): Any bound by this rope must answer truthfully all questions put to them. DC 10 to escape after initial lassoing, and DC20 after it has been properly tied around target by wielder. 5: Mythril Braids (1d3x100'): Can hold any weight, and wielder can pull that weight. Held items not guaranteed to avoid breaking apart, however. 6: The Longest Snake: An impossibly long snake that follows owner's unspoken will. 20HP, speed 20, 15 AC, gaze can hypnotise any target that fails DC 10 Will check. Can lift 400 pounds at a time. 7: Silk of the Arachnid Queens: Can entangle any one human-sized target (no save) (used until retracted), or fill a room with webbing that makes it nigh impassible (used until retracted). Also can be used to wrap an offering (must be at least as big as a halfling) that will placate any one monstrous spider, or a den of such, living together.

----

Want to give feedback? Share this on g+ and give me a tag (+ Claytonian JP) (if you want to keep it private, share with only me). If you spot a typo or don't have g+, you can just email me. Claytonian at the gmails.

Experience expressed in terms of dice

This is a little update to the Kill It With Fire RPG rules. The concept is that while there are skill-sets that act like psuedo-classes, any PC can attempt to learn any ability, but those with the skill-sets and the associated traits can learn them easier. So there are no levels in KIWF, but there are HD and tricks that can be increased over time, if the dice come up in your favor. Good bye, experience points! Hello, experience dice!

Experience

When you finish a major quest and are out of harm’s way, be that clearing out a dungeon or what have you, the referee should allow your group 1d6’s worth of in-game weeks to improve your abilities as a reward for merely surviving, provided you made it back to a safe area to live and train.

It is not guaranteed that you learn anything of worth, however, and so sometimes nothing happens, but you can store up Experience Dice (xpdice) to shore up your chances. Experience dice are d6s that are awarded by the referee after each session for the following kinds of situations:

• You or your group have completed a minor quest: 1d6.
• As above, but a major quest: 1d6’s worth of d6s.
• You have pleased a god/power (and this action isn't covered by one of the others in this list): 1d6, or 2d6 if you are have a “Holy” skill-set.
• You said something in character that made the whole table bust up laughing something fierce: 1d6.
• You spent dungeon lucre on a night of carousing, buying or expanding a personal domain, or creating a pious work: 1d6 per 100 gold spent per the PC’S HD (for instance, a 3HD PC would need to spend 300 gold).
• Your ingenuity saved the entire party from certain doom: 1d6.
• You made a heroic effort to save someone in a grim situation: 1d6, or 2d6 if you were horribly wounded.

Example: Phinious the Sage is a PC of the arcane persuasion. During today’s session, his party stopped the machinations of Huruk the Mad Duke (minor quest), discovered a new dungeon complex (minor quest), and provided the ingredients to power a ritual that saved the free city of Cravenholm (major quest). After the excitement, during a lull between adventures, Phinious sacrificed 3000 gold creating some automatons to act as sentries to the temple of Tsathogunata, demon-god of wizards. He has 5HD, so that gives him 6xp dice for the sacrifice, plus 1 for the minor quest and at least 1 more for the major quest. His player may now roll some or all of them to gain new abilities now, or they can be saved for another session.

Experience Dice can only be rolled during the aforementioned PCs’ world's downtime, and any dice that don’t roll the needed result are lost.

Ways to spend those xpdice, and how many it will cost:

• Get an additional Hit Die: roll a 6 or better, but the amount of successes required is cumulative for every two extant HD the PC has. For instance, if the PC has 6HD already, then the player needs to spend xpdice until he has managed to roll three 6s in one sitting (using any amount of xpdice the player is willing to throw at the attempt).
• Get a new ability: each ability will have a number that you have to roll at or higher on an xpdie to earn, but you get one reroll to your attempt if you have a relevant trait score equal or higher than the target number. You also get a reroll if the ability is within your skill-set. Abilities that need to be learned before the one you want will be grouped together.
• Increase a trait score: spend three xpdice and have them all roll the number you currently have. Xpdice can only be spent this way in groups of three.
• Train with a weapon: each weapon is written up much like an ability with a target number to roll for basic aptitude, which is a minor weapon ability. Related weapon abilities will be grouped together on a weapon’s description.
• Get a free check: this is a way to actually use xpdice outside of downtime. Sacrifice one die to pass one check or make one combat die an automatic hit.

----
Want to give feedback? Share this on g+ and give me a tag (+claytonian JP) (if you want to keep it private, share with only me).
If you spot a typo or don't have g+, you can just email me. Claytonian at the gmails.