Other items that characters may encounter as the wander around are “objects of potential importance”, such as shrines, idols, pools, alters, and whatnot. These bits of dungeon dressing are placed more or less randomly throughout the gaming area by the players when the dungeon is fi rst laid out, or, depending on the scenario, may be arranged purposefully by the evil overlord as quest pieces to be sought out.
In a truly random game, all of these items have the same ultimate potential. They could be a benefi cial encounter, they could be a detrimental encounter, or they could be a completely irrel- evant encounter. We are going to turn once again to standard playing cards to provide the re- sults for such an encounter. Any specifi c “object of potential importance” will only activate once per party, and they may not have the same effect on a different party that encounters them. In other words, if party “A” encounters a shallow pool, and drops their dead cleric into it, they might get lucky and fi nd their cleric is miraculously brought back to life. This would be con- strued as a good thing. If party “B” later encounters the same pool, and the player controlling that party has everybody jump in, thinking they will all be healed to full health, he may be some- what surprised to discover that his entire party is randomly teleported 24” away. Or, everybody who jumped into the pool may take 1 automatic wnd from acid damage. Magic is fi ckle that way. Here are the guidelines for setting up these “objects of dubious benefi t” - I advise that these be a whole lot more scarce than chests and containers and whatnot - so if you are setting up a dungeon for 3 players, and you have 20 or more chests, bags, barrels, crates, etc, spread throughout the gaming area, you probably would want no more than 3 or 4 of these special en- counters placed.
Be sure that all players recognize them for what they could potentially be, and use tokens, or models, or something signifi cant that will keep them from being overlooked during gameplay. To activate one of these encounters, have 1, or more, of your characters touch it, and then draw a card from the aforementioned deck of randomized numerical values. (standard playing cards)
8.3.1 Pick a card, any card - And here‛s what happens ..
If a black number card is drawn, absolutely nothing happens. The party may attempt to activate the encounter with a different character – on the next turn - if so desired, but the character that failed to activate it is not affected by any further results of this encounter – although he is not immune to the effects of critters that might result once the event is activated.
This character is ignored by any face card results – he will not have his attributes affected, he will not be healed, he will not be benefi ted or hindered directly by the eventual effects of this special encounter. If the result teleports the party elsewhere within the dungeon (or out of it) he will get dragged along with the rest of the party. But that‛s it - all other effects will ignore him.
If a red number card is drawn, then a new encounter token is placed 8 to 16 inches away from the party, out of line of sight, by the previous player. So in essence, the shrine has apparently done nothing, but something may happen in a turn or two, when/if the party encounters the to- ken. That token is tested when line of sight occurs, and behaves as a standard encounter from that point on.
Now, should you draw an Ace or Face card, interesting things could occur…
Ace of Hearts - the shrine produces 1-3 healing potions.
King of Hearts - A wizened old man appears, collects an admittance fee of 500 gold per party
member, thanks you for visiting, asks you to wipe your feet on the way out, and disappears. (there is no way to avoid this fi nancial deduction)
Queen of Hearts - A red-haired woman appears, instantly heals all models within 12” (even crit-
ters & bad guys - raising dead if needed) and departs.
Jack of Hearts - The entire party is teleported 12” to 24” away in a random direction (at the
discretion of the previous player)
Ace of Clubs - Wealth - 500 to 3000 gold suddenly appear (1d6x500)
King of Clubs - A random party member has their wnds value increased by one (randomly deter-
mined by previous player)
Queen of Clubs - the character that activated the shrine has their standard av increased by 1 Jack of Clubs - A random party member has their movement reduced by 2
Ace of Spades - Death - the model that touched the shrine, dies (magic resistance roll applies,
but that‛s it - hope it wasn‛t the cleric)
King of Spades - Dark-haired man appears, tells you you are trespassing, and teleports the
party to the entrance they started from.
Queen of Spades - Little old woman appears, does 1-2 wounds (no dv, no mr roll) to a randomly
determined party member, who is then granted an increase of 1 to their magic resistance (mr) - if this action killed the character, they do not gain the benefi t mr if revived by a cleric. The old woman fades away immediately after bestowing her cursed blessing.
Jack of Spades - all models within 6” take 1 wnd (mr applies to avoid damage)
Ace of Diamonds - Change - the character that fi rst touched the shrine has their cd increased
by d2 (d6 becomes d8, for example)
King of Diamonds - A frail little old gnome appears, steals a random magical goodie from the
party, and raises the specialist av of a random party member by 1 (mage‛s magical attack, cler- ic‛s banishment attack, thief‛s backstab, or archer‛s ranged attack) results are unavoidable.
Queen of Diamonds - a ravishing woman appears, and (roll d6) 1-3 gives 2 random goodies to the
dungeon. The party may re-enter the dungeon from a different entrance after skipping 1 turn - time taken fi guring out what happened - or they may just count their loot and head back to town - player‛s discretion.
Jack of Diamonds - 2 random party members have their movement increased by 2, and one ran-
dom goodie is teleported 12” to 24” inches away. The party is “aware” of what got teleported, and they are “aware” of the where it went - basically, the gods of chance expect them to use their new found speed and go racing after it. The item in question will be lying out in the open for anyone (other parties included) to take and use.