Spineless Grimoire

Lately I've been rummaging through my gamebooks, I have a lot of fondness for Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson's fighting fantasy books (despite the linearity of some of the titles) and city of thieves was actually the first time I experienced the thrill of adventuring in a fantasy city with a character of my own (yes, even before my first game of dnd). Today though, we are talking about crypt of the vampire, a gamebook by Dave Morris and not part of the FF line. The book is relatively simple, some of the typical FF mechanic are missing (no luck, fixed chance to hit monsters) but the feel is still close, and the adventure has the benefit of offering multiple (and viable) paths. While mapping the crypts, I noticed that despite the linearity of the adventure, the dungeon in itself could maybe be lifted out of the book : Encounters : 1-2 : 1d6  skeletons ,   3-5 : 1d3 enthralled fighters  (level1), 6 :  Tenebron  (Vampire, will only fight for 1 round before retrea...

Cards are cool and fun, and they offer a lot of texture to randomization, a card has a symbol, a value, if you use tarot deck you even have the major arcanas that can add a layer of interpretation. So why not try to use them to generate a dungeon on the fly. Here is a small method I designed a while ago, it is not perfect and may require more playtesting, but it was fun to toy around the idea. For this generator, I will be using a standard 52 card deck but treat the kings, queen and jacks as trump cards using the following list (you could also use a tarot): Jack of ♣ - The trickster : Something/someone is not as it seems Jack of ♥ - The chalice : Something fallen from grace, not used at his full potential Jack of ♦ - The beacon : Something noticeable, a figure of hope Jack of ♠ - The traveler : A new lead, potential, possibility for a new beginning Queen of ♣ - Thread of fate : Something already known or encountered Queen of ♥ - Temptation : Something that evokes dread or desire Queen ...

This first article was written for a prompt submitted in the OSR discord server. I like cats (who doesn't) so I had fun coming up with silly tables to make the cats you encounter in your adventures a bit more special.   What’s up with the cats in this Village ?   Die 1 Result They secretly rule it, inhabitants are either fooled or terrified 2 They are not real, mere phantasms fading under the sunlight 3 All female, spontaneously appearing and growing more numerous each passing day 4 Lucky charms, those who don’t have a cat are miserable 5 Hunters, trained to seek and kill 6 All sick, The inhabitants don’t seem to notice What’s up with the cats in this forest ? Die 1 Result They protect it, a simple warning at first, and a fury of claws afterwards 2 Faes, if you follow them, you won’t find a way back 3 Giant, the size of a man, and twice their appetite 4 Infected with giant cordyceps 5 They always grin, disturbingly 6 Not actual cats, feral children pretending to be animals Wh...