Racial Weapon Styles: Kobolds

Kobolds are small.  Strong, tenacious, but small.  Almost everyone they encounter is bigger than them.  Rather than feeling that everyone picks on them or looks down on them, they make use of every advantage that their dragon ancestors gave them.  They're smart, fast, and sneaky.  Though they rarely use swords (as it involves getting closer than they are comfortable with) the blades they forge for themselves tent to be straight and thin.  Punch blades, kama's and tonfa style short swords (like Kroenen's from Hellboy) are the most common.  

Their steel tends to be of better quality than that of the goblinkin, though inferior to that of elves or dwarves.  As the ultimate opportunists kobolds are more likely than nearly any other race found using the weapons of those they've looted.  Dragonkin weapons are especially prized, though they tend to be too large to actually be used effectively.

---

Racial Weapon Styles: Dragonborn

In 4e the Dragonborn are very much like the Klingons of Star Trek TNG and DS9.  They are a noble warrior race of a proud empire.  No reason to mess with a good background.  Dragonborn blades tend toward curves, points, and extra blades and are designed for fluid slashing attacks. The steel of a Dragonborn blade is of the highest quality, and often more exotic metals are forged into the steel. 

In many ways they resemble highly refined goblinoid blades.  Goblins will tell you that the dragonborn realized how effective their weapons are and modeled their own after goblin designs.  The truth is more likely the reverse. 

 

2 handed sword

Dragonborn long/broad/bastard sword - blade and grip length vary.

Dragonborn short sword

Holmes, Moldvay, Mentzer, B/X, BECMI, RC????

Simple question, maybe... can someone explain to me the differences between the various editions of basic D&D.  I have the Rules Cyclopedia, and the Red Box basic set (the one with the choose your own adventure style solo game and the ruined keep), and I don't really notice much difference between them, or even between them and Labyrinth Lord.

So can anyone fill me in on the differences?

Thanks!

Baby Bloodsucker

I had this creepy dream about a week ago about vampires.  It bordered on nightmarish, especially when the infant vampire showed up.  It was way less cute than this guy here.  Because it's been on my mind, I'm going to stat it up, since if it has stats, you can kill it!

Infant Vampire

Armour Class: 2
Hit Dice: 3+2**
Move: 60' (20')
     Flying: 180' (60')
Attacks: 1 touch or special
Damage:  1d3 + energy drain or special
No. Appearing: 1 (do you really want there to be more than one of these?) plus 1d4 vampire spawn
Save As: C3
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: nil
Alignment: Chaotic
XP Value: 100

Infant Vampires often appear along with vampire spawn who pose as it's family.  They will do everything in their power to make sure that at least one of it's thralls is a female of appropriate age to have an infant.  They are spiteful creatures, and evil in the extreme.  

As per the Rules Cyclopedia, except where noted.

Infant vampires are unable to shapeshift.  The saving throw againt their gaze attack suffers a -4 penalty to the roll.  Infant Vampire spellcasters are rare, and only found among the oldest of such creatures, and can only reach a maximum of level 4.  Any character slain by an infant vampire will rise the next night as a vampire spawn under the thrall of the slayer.

Lesser Vampire / Vampire Spawn

When the RC vampire kills an opponent they rise as 7 HD vampires with half the creatures previous hit points.  This can result in 3 hit point 7 HD vampires.  Seems kinda silly, so here's an alternate take on vampire spawn.

Vampire Spawn (aka Lesser Vampire)

Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 2** (M)
Move: 120' (40')
      Flying: 180' (60')
Attacks: 1 touch
Damage: 1d8 + energy drain
No. Appearing: 1d4 (2d4+2)
Save As: F2
Morale: 10
Treasure Type:
Intelligence: 10
Alignment: Chaotic
XP Value: 45
Monster Type: Undead 

Vampire Spawn are the creations of powerful Vampires.  They are a vampire liege's trusted lieutenants, sent to scout and hunt, used to defend their lairs, and ruthlessly tossed aside as needed to serve in whatever the lords plans are. 

Abilities of Vampires: Vampire Spawn are unaffected by sleep, charm, and hold spells, and can only be damaged by fire, silver & magical weapons, and spells. A vampire spawn may take the form of a human, a wolf, or a giant bat. Each change takes 1 round.  Whatever its form, a vampire spawn regenerates 1 hit point per round, starting as soon as it is damaged.  If a vampire spawn is reduced to 0 hit points it will fall unconscious and continue to regenerate until the conditions below are met. 

In wolf or giant bat form, the vampire spawn's move, attacks, and damage are those of the animal.  The vampire's AC, Hit Dice, morale, and saving throws remain unchanged.

Any character slain by a vampire spawn will return from death in three days, as a vampire spawn under the control of the Vampire Liege.

Weaknesses of Vampire Spawn: A vampire Spawn cannot come within 10 feet of a strongly presented holy symbol, although it can move to attack from another direction. The odor of garlic repels a vampire spawn; the creature must make a successful saving throw vs. poison or stay at least 10 feet away from the garlic during that round.

Vampire Spawn cannot cross running water, either on foot or flying, except at bridges or while in their coffins. During the day, a vampire spawn usually rests in its coffin; failure to do so results in the loss of 2d6 hit points per day. These hit points are not regenerated until the vampire spawn has rested in its coffin for a full day. A vampire spawn casts no reflection and avoids mirrors.

A vampire spawn may be destroyed by driving a wooden stake through its heart, decapitation, or by immersion in running water for 1 turn. If a vampire spawn is exposed to direct sunlight, the creature must make a saving throw vs. death ray each round or disintegrate. A continual light spell will not disintegrate a vampire. If all of the vampire's coffins are blessed or destroyed, the vampire spawn will weaken, taking 2d6 hit points of damage per day. It dies when its hit points are reduced to 0.

If a vampire spawn's creator is destroyed, the spawns all become free willed undead.  There is a 10% chance that a free spawn will become a full vampire after it has rested in it's coffin for one full day after being freed. 

---

Well that turned out to be longer than I thought it would.  Seems like a lot of text for a 2HD monster.  Any suggestions on cutting that down?

The Rusty Battle Axe's Dungeoneer's Bookshelf

My Dungeoneer's Bookshelf

Here is my annotated dungeoneer's bookshelf. I have not included items that are otherwise useful to classic fantasy RPG dungeon-based adventuring: GM/DM/CK/Ref guides, monster collections, campaign setting materials, and adventure modules. I have also not included those items only available as PDFs. The items below are listed in publication order, with the oldest being listed first.

Dungeoneer's Survival Guide (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) by Doug Niles (1986): The Dungeoneer's Survivival Guide and its companion volume, the Wilderness Survival Guide, are considered by many to be classics. DSG has a section for players and a section for DMs, each a little over 60 pages. As a GM/DM/CK/Ref, I have found the player section to be more helpful in terms of providing in-game guidance to things like rope use, mining, moving in water, and variations in underground combat. There is a lot of good stuff in this section. I think that the DM section is marred by the presence of a sample underground world, "The Lands of Deepearth." It takes up a significant amount of space and I don't find it particularly helpful.
Dungeon Builder's Guidebook (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) by Bruce Cordell (1998): Not a bad buy as a used book for a couple of bucks, but this 2E book pales in comparison to its sister volume, the ever useful World Builder's Guide. It is primarily a guide for constructing dungeons, with the ability to generate random features at each point along the way. There is a diversity of dungeon types, including underwater dungeons, aerial dungeons, and interdimensional dungeons. It's not horrible, but it lacks substance and seems a bit fluffy to me.

Dungeons by Alderac Entertainment Group (2002): A 3E supplement. Not much here, except for a few mildly interesting puzzle ideas. This is only for "dungeoneer completists." The stereotypical 3E mix of prestige classes, feats, spells, monsters and vague DM ideas, all gathered around the dungeon theme.

Dungeoncraft (Legends & Lairs, d20) (2003): Part of the highly-esteemed "Legends & Lairs" 3E supplements from Fantasy Flight Games. This book contains the usual 3E mix of prestige classes, feats, spells and monsters. However, the second half of the book--covering dungeon crafting--is a gold mine for the GM/DM/CK/Ref building and running a dungeon adventure/campaign. The two companion volumes--Traps & Treachery I & II--are also pretty good.

Dungeonscape: An Essential Guide to Dungeon Adventuring (Dungeons & Dragons d20) (2007): I would say that this book is not too bad, were it not for the fact that the best content is also found in the D&D 3.5E DMG. I have found the companion volume, Cityscape, to be more useful. A decent collection of traps give this book some value.

Engineering Dungeons by Robert Doyel (2008): A very business-like accessory for Castles & Crusades. This is useful for just about any RPG using underground space. The heart of this book is a no-frills random dungeon generator. There is less variety here than in the Dungeon Builder's Guidebook, but there is more attention to detail. It is the detail and the text that makes this book valuable even if you are not generating a random dungeon.

As I get into our current Castles & Crusades homebrew campaign, Isles of Emmon, I find myself paging through these books for ideas. My own dungeoneer's canon starts with two books: AD&D DMG (Gygax) and the AD&D 2E Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide/Dungeon Master's Guide/Rules Supplement (Jaquays). To these I would add two books from my dungeoneer's bookshelf: AD&D Dungeoneer's Survival Guide (Niles) & Dungeoncraft (Legends & Lairs, D20). Finally, when I need help with the nuts and bolts, I use Engineering Dungeons as my go-to dungeon generator.

Anything missing from this list? Is there anything that you have found helpful?

Random Blog Post Topic Generators from The Rusty Battle Axe

As I think these were fun and useful posts from the Rusty Battle Axe (who will be missed) I thought I would preserve and share them here for all. 



The Original!


D30 Random Blog Topic Table
1. My Favorite Color of Dice
2. Most Unlikely, But True, TPK
3. Least Favorite Magic Item
4. Which Monster Has the Best Sense of Humor?
5. Retro-Clones: Are They OSR?
6. Random Table of Found Meals in the Dungeon
7. Dungeon Geology
8. Why I Don't Like __________
9. Flaming Oil as a Weapon: Yes or No?
10. Darwin Award for Player Characters: Your Best Self-Destructive PC
11. Do Elves Fart?
12. Does Your Campaign Setting Have a Magnetic Field?
13. The Original AD&D 1e Bard
14. Clowns As Monsters
15. Lions, Tigers and Bears
16. Three New Magic Items
17. Clothes and Style for Player Characters
18. The Best Names for Taverns, Pubs, Inns and Bars
19. Fudging Dice Rolls as DM: Yes, No, or Depends
20. Spells with Loopholes
21. Names For Coinage
22. Three Actual Historic/Geographic Settings for Campaigning
23. New Monster
24. Best Music Before a Gaming Session
25. Snacks: Salty, Sweet or Healthy?
26. What Were They Thinking?
27. Names for Swords
28. Five Things an Adventurer Should Never Be Without
29. Oops
30. Roll Twice and Use Both Topics in One Post


Son of Random Blog Post Topic Generator

1. You're doing it wrong!*
2. Now THAT Was Inappropriate
3. The Biggest ______ Ever
4. Put Some Water On It
5. After That...Silence
6. And Here Is What You Missed
7. And When The Saving Throw Failed…
8. Bad Dice Day
9. That’s Not How I Imagined It
10. Ewww…What Is that Smell?
11. And That’s the Last Time I Ever __________
12. Should Have Checked For Traps
13. Don’t Taunt the Monster
14. Banned From Appendix N!!
15. Maybe I Should Have Stayed Home
16. When _______ Attack(s)
17. Well, That Didn’t Work
18. And It Sounds Like _______
19. Duh
20. Missed It By That Much

*Thanks, Gene



Table 1: Roll d10
1-2 Roll on Table 2 then on Table 4
3-4 Roll on Table 3 then on Table 4
5-9 Roll on Table 2, then on Table 3, then on Table 4
10- Roll on Table 4

Table 2-Roll d12
1.    The
2.    A
3.    One
4.    Two
5.    Three
6.    Four
7.    Five
8.    Six
9.    Seven
10.    Eight
11.    Nine
12.    Ten

Table 3-Roll d100
1.    Alabaster
2.    Amiable
3.    Anemic
4.    Apelike
5.    Arcane
6.    Bad
7.    Badass
8.    Beautiful
9.    Best
10.    Bizarro
11.    Black
12.    Blue
13.    Certain
14.    Cheap
15.    Circular
16.    Clever
17.    Dark
18.    Dastardly
19.    Dead
20.    Difficult
21.    Dirty
22.    Divine
23.    Dorky
24.    Draconic
25.    Dry
26.    Elastic
27.    Exciting
28.    Explosive
29.    Fast
30.    Fastest
31.    Favorite
32.    Flashy
33.    Flying
34.    Funny
35.    Gnarly
36.    Golden
37.    Gooey
38.    Gray
39.    Green
40.    Groovy
41.    Horrible
42.    Hostile
43.    Humane
44.    Humorous
45.    Immovable
46.    Interesting
47.    Lazy
48.    Least Favorite
49.    Living
50.    Loud
51.    Major
52.    Massive
53.    Meta
54.    Mighty
55.    Minor
56.    Miserly
57.    Multi-Faceted
58.    Mundane
59.    Neutral
60.    New
61.    Nice
62.    Old
63.    Oldest
64.    Orange
65.    Overlooked
66.    Paleomorphic
67.    Pedantic
68.    Perverted
69.    Pissy
70.    Poor
71.    Popular
72.    Purple
73.    Red
74.    Rich
75.    Rude
76.    Sad
77.    Scary
78.    Secret
79.    Shocking
80.    Skimpy
81.    Slow
82.    Sparkly
83.    Stupendous
84.    Stupid
85.    Sure
86.    Sweet
87.    Tight
88.    Timid
89.    Tiny
90.    Ugly
91.    Unpleasant
92.    Valuable
93.    White
94.    Wicked
95.    Wiggliest
96.    Wimpy
97.    Wordy
98.    Worst
99.    Worthless
100.    Yellow

Table 4: Roll d100
1.    Aberrations
2.    Actions
3.    Adventures
4.    Ants
5.    Armor
6.    Artifacts
7.    Artwork
8.    Authors
9.    Bargains
10.    Beans
11.    Beverages
12.    Books
13.    Campaigns
14.    Castles
15.    Characters
16.    Cities
17.    Classes
18.    Clerics
19.    Concepts
20.    Concerns
21.    Covers
22.    Cowards
23.    Crackers
24.    Creatures
25.    Deities
26.    Demons
27.    Dice
28.    Dice Rolls
29.    Doors
30.    Dragons
31.    Dungeons
32.    Dwarves
33.    Editions
34.    Elementals
35.    Elves
36.    Encounters
37.    Equipment
38.    Events
39.    Fey
40.    Fighters
41.    Freebies
42.    Giants
43.    GMs
44.    Gnomes
45.    Guilds
46.    Halflings
47.    Heroes
48.    Humans
49.    Ideas
50.    Inflictions
51.    Information
52.    Issues
53.    Items
54.    Kobolds
55.    Maces
56.    Magic Items
57.    Maps
58.    Modules
59.    Monsters
60.    Mounts
61.    News
62.    Odors
63.    Orcs
64.    Planes
65.    Players
66.    Poisons
67.    Problems
68.    Products
69.    Puns
70.    Races
71.    Rangers
72.    Relics
73.    Rings
74.    Rogues
75.    Rooms
76.    Ruins
77.    Rulebooks
78.    Rules
79.    Saving Throws
80.    Secrets
81.    Sessions
82.    Settings
83.    Snacks
84.    Spells
85.    Strategies
86.    Supplements
87.    Tables
88.    Taverns
89.    Techniques
90.    Thieves
91.    Tools
92.    Trolls
93.    Undead
94.    Vampires
95.    Victims
96.    Villains
97.    Wands
98.    Weapons
99.    Wimps
100.    Wizards

Aftershocks

The most recent tempest in a teapot that has raged through our little corner of the net has had some aftershocks that I'm less than pleased about.   

Chgowiz, who provided both inspiration and support when I initially created my blog deleted his Old Guy Blog, and has been silent since.    There is a petition for his return, and I hope he considers it.  

With my limited outsiders view I think that the kerfuffle, like most that happen in small volunteer organizations is pretty ridiculous, and I wish everyone could just be happy that people are talking about games, and even better playing them!

Ken is putting down his Rust Battle Axe.  It may be rusty, but it was always nice to know it was out there.  I wish him the best.  Rotgut the Dwarf will most certainly be added to my cast of standard NPCs, and I'll be reposting a couple of my favorite of his posts here shortly.

Not all who venture down return!

I wish I'd have thought about this for the Design a Dungeon Room contest back in January! 

As the party approaches the top of the stairs leading down to the next section of the dungeon, the first thing they notice are the two small shelves, one on either side of the corridor.  Each is about six feet from the floor, 7 inches square and about an inch thick, made of the same stone as the walls.  There is a small piece of chalk on each shelf, and remarkably little dust.  Below each shelf, marked in chalk is an arrow and hash marks.  On one side the arrow is pointing down the stairs, and has 23 hash marks.  On the opposite side the arrow points up from the stairs, and has only 9 hash marks. 

What the players can't see are the pair of invisible imps that have been tasked with keeping track of the number of groups that go into and out of the next level of the dungeon.  Should players mark that they're entering the lower level, or do nothing to disturb the markings that have already been made the imps will do nothing.  Should the adventurers do much of anything else the imps will cause the floor within 5 feet of the top step to become coated in oil of slipperiness/Grease spell, and then will push the adventurer who disturbed their count before flying off until they leave. 

Vampires from the Rules Cyclopedia

I was reading the Rules Cyclopedia entry on the vampire, and then the following section of Undead Lieges. Like other energy draining undead, the possibility of a vampire hoard wiping out civilization, and ushering in an undead evil empire is pretty strong.  So what's to stop that from happening? (You know, aside from all those adventurers.)

According to the Undead Lieges and Pawns rules: At moonrise on the night of the full moon, all pawns are freed of control and cannot be controlled again until the following dawn. Thus, the maximum continuous duration of undead control is about four weeks. Any liege may release control of its pawns at any time.  

Plus there is the HD limit for control: A liege may control a number of undead whose total Hit Dice are less than or equal to twice the liege's Hit Dice.

Now, it isn't clear that these rules apply to the vampire, as there is an entire section devoted to energy draining undead, and according to the undead control chart a vampire can't possibly control another vampire, at least not one that wasn't created by the first vampire. 

Let's look at what happens when a vampire kills everyone staying at an inn.  Chances are really good that of the 15 people at the inn, at least 14 of them are normal people.  We'll say one of them is a level 3 wizard.  Come the next night our Vampire Lord has 15 vampire pawns.  14 of them are 7 hit dice creatures with 1-3 hit points.  The last one has 6 hit points, and can cast a couple of spells.  Basically he just created 14 vampire minions from 4e.  Any 7th level party should be able to wipe out the bunch without too much effort, but probably a whole lot of worry.  They're still doing the double energy drain!  

Should they still be doing double energy drain?  Are they really worth 1,250xp each?  Or is it worth writing up a vampire spawn monster?  One that fits with the previously mentioned Undead Liege rules?

Anyone have any experience actually using these rules? 

Racial Weapon Styles: Goblinoids

Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Bugbears all share a common ancestry, and are often found in cohabitation.  This results in a fairly homogeneous style between the various goblinoid races.  The style could best be described as "viscous cleaver" rather than sword.  Each weapon is unique, but they all tend to share common features - hooks, barbs, spikes, and a lack of any hand protection. 

They also tend to be made of inferior iron and steel.  For this reason it is rare to find anyone who would be willing to take them for sale or trade.  The quality of the metal doesn't seem to have much impact on their lethality however!  In fact the filth on the blades tends to make surviving a goblin wound chancy, even if the blow doesn't kill you.

Megadungeon Map

As promised, here is the map I was working on to take advantage of various features that fantasy dungeons offer.  I actually had a lot of fun drawing this one, and I'm looking forward to stocking it.  Looking at it again, I realize that I only gave it one way out of the section.  I'll have to add passage/portal/stairway to one (or more) of the rooms. 

Racial Weapon Styles: Humans, Dwarves, Elves

Visually, I like each race to have distinctive styles.  There isn't really any mechanical effect, though it can have a role playing effect.  A human carrying an orc sword sends a very different message then one carrying an elven blade.  At the end of the day, it still does 1d8 points of damage, but it's how it says it that can often times be important.

The most distinctive and expressive weapons tend to be blades, from spears to daggers to two handed swords, a blade can say a lot about a society.

Human blades tend to be leaf shaped, flaring out from a narrower base.  The length of the blade tends to impact the width of the widest point.  Longer blades tend to have a more subtle shape than shorter blades.  Specific decorations, materials, and styles will vary be region, and even by smithy, but they generally follow the same basic pattern.

Dwarven smiths tend to make fewer swords larger than a short sword, mostly owing to the traditional preference towards axes and hammers.  Yet Dwarven sword smithing is still a highly refined art.  Their blades tend to be straight, and while the short sword is the most common, examples of both long and 2 handed can be found.

Elven blades are light and elegant.  Single edged curved blades with a slightly re-curved grip are the norm.

**Pictures stolen shamelessly from all over the internet.

Going Deep (into the dungeon)

I've been rather quiet on my megadungeon project of late, and that is because I've been dissatisfied with my efforts up to this point.  The problem is that I was bored with the maps I was drawing.  They just didn't capture my imagination, they didn't seem like the sorts of dungeons I'd want to necessarily play in.  I think I was drawing a dungeon more like an office building, and while an office building might be efficient, it tends to be boring.  I need more chaos in my dungeon, more weird!  The maps I'm most happy with are the ones that aren't actually a part of the main dungeon!! 

I've also got everything pretty much flat.  There isn't any reason why any level of the dungeon needs to be all the same depth, as my levels should be more relative, which can give a greater ability to make interesting areas to play in. While much of the dungeon will be composed of rectangular rooms, I'd like there to be some interesting features for characters to play on/around/with.  Stairs, balconies, rafters, ropes, chandeliers, etc. 

I have a room that I'm really looking forward to drawing up that will take advantage of a number of these features.  Expect to see it shortly!

Random Magical Book Name Generator

Over at Planet Algol was some talk about making spell books and other magical tomes unique.  I decided to put together a name generator for such books. 

Random Magic Book Name Generator

Roll 1d6

1. Roll once on columns 2 & 3
2. Roll once on columns 2, 3, & 4
3. Roll once on columns 2, 3, 4, & 5
4. Roll once on columns 1, 2, 4, & 5
5. Roll once on columns 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5
6. Roll once on columns 4 & 5
 

	1	2	3	4	5
1	Alabaster	Book	Accursed	Awful	Alchemy
2	Ancient	Codex	Boundless	Black	Arts
3	Bound	Compendium	Celestial	Dangerous	Astrology
4	Calamitous	Folio	Demented	Dark	Conjuration
5	Draconic	Formulaes	Eldritch	Elegant	Demonism
6	Enchanted	Grimoire	Forgotten	Forlorn	Diabolism
7	Gilded	Inscriptions	Great	Hermetic	Enigma
8	Hidden	Lexicon	Hallowed	Infernal	Hexes
9	Illuminated	Librium	Insidious	Inscrutable	Magic
10	Lost	Manuscript	Luminous	Lunisolar	Magus
11	Magnificent	Plates	Master's	Mystagogical	Maleficarum
12	Monsterous	Portfolio	Noxious	Numinous	Rituals
13	Olde	Primer	Obscene	Onymatic	Runes
14	Poisonous	Scroll	Planar	Palladian	Secrets
15	Revised	Tablets	Resonant	Resplendent	Sorcery
16	Seven	Text	Shadow	Scioptic	Spells
17	Trifold	Tome	Terrible	Telestic	Thaumaturgy
18	Veiled	Treatise	Unequaled	Umbral	Transformation
19	Vile	Vade Mecum	Volatile	Villainous	Unknown
20	Wonderful	Volume	White	Whispering	Whitchcraft

Testing it out I got these results:
Wonderful Librium Hallowed Lunisolar Magic
Manuscript Hallowed Palladian
Magnificent Manuscript  Dangerous Astrology
Mystagogical Witchcraft
Scroll Boundless Inscrutable Rituals
Treatise Masters Mystagogical Spells
Olde Vade Mecum Scioptic Whitchcraft
Grimoire Masters
Tablets Obscene
Librium Volatile
Poisonous Compendium Resplendant Magus
Book Eldritch Whispering 

Tweaking that a bit the list becomes:

The Wonderful Librium of Hallowed Lunisolar Magic
Palladian's Hallowed Manuscript
A Dangerous Manuscript of Magnificent Astrology
Mystagogical Witchcraft
Inscrutable Scroll & Boundless Rituals
Master's Treatise on Mystagogical Spells
Scioptic Whitchcraft from the Olde Vade Mecum
Masters Grimoire
Tablets of the Obscene
Librium Volatile
Poisonous Compendium of the Resplendant Magus
Book of Eldritch Whispering

The Devil's in the Details: Kobolds

Picking up on the gauntlet that James Maliszewski threw down and Michael Curtis has already answered twice I offer my own Kesher-eqsue table for the lovable Kobold.

d20 (Roll 3 times or pick 3)	Many Kobolds…
1	Believe discretion is the better part of valor.
2	Wear bandoliers full of both useful and useless trinkets.
3	Believe big races are powerful, but foolish.
4	Enjoy the taste of insects.
5	Are communal creatures.
6	Relish the chance to have a good sand scrub.
7	Are jealous of dwarven stonesmiths.
8	Feel clothing is generally unnecessary, but armor is very useful.
9	Sharpen their teeth.
10	Have black eyes.
11	Hide color ranges anywhere from brown to rust to black.
12	Prefer to stab you in the back, as it’s safer than stabbing you in the front.
13	Want to outnumber their opponents.
14	Tend to blink quickly when they aren’t focused on something.
15	Enjoy garish colors.
16	Will decorate whatever living quarters they inhabit with carvings in the walls.
17	Distrust gnomes and illusions (that aren’t of their own making)
18	Are industrious miners
19	Polish their horns
20	Are generally immune to the stinging of small insects

Roll d16 (1d8 + high/low die) once	Some Kobolds…
1	Become intoxicated by milk products.
2	Claim to be descended from specific dragons.
3	Believe the more parts a trap has the better it is.
4	Are Blue or White instead of their usual colors
5	Feel a compulsion to fix things that adventurers break.
6	Keep newts or salamanders as pets.
7	Appear more dog like than their kin.
8	Chirp when happy.
9	Can’t sleep if there isn’t a roof of some sort over their heads.
10	Have vestigial wings.
11	Use body paint regularly.
12	Fear the fae.
13	Wear decorative tail caps.
14	Will threaten to eat your baby to intimidate you.
15	Can grow quills on their chin.
16	Have small horns down their backs.

d16 (1d8 + high/low die) 1d3 times	Common Traveling Gear
1	Block of cheese.
2	Pots of body paint.
3	Stoneworking tools.
4	A pouch with a salamander and moss.
5	Bronze tail cap.
6	A bright scarf.
7	A hooked knife.
8	A necklace made from the bones of small animals
9	A box of beetles.
10	A piece of shell from the egg they were hatched from.
11	A ball of twine.
12	Several lucky stones.
13	A simple broach with feathers.
14	A broad bladed short spear (useful for digging pits).
15	A vial of oil
16	Salt crystals in a small pouch.