Mercurial Schools of Magic: Pyromancy

"Consider creating your own custom mercurial magic tables that align with the schools of magic in your own campaign." - DCC RPG p. 320

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Upon casting Arcane Affinity (p. 162), a caster's mercurial magic results are all rerolled as the wizard becomes attuned to their chosen school of magic. Roll 1d24 modified by the caster's Luck modifier (do not multiply by 10 as when rolling on the original d100 table). Note that 0 and 25 are only achievable with a Luck modifier. These results are largely based on the core game's tables, selected and flavoured to be appropriate to the school of magic, though there are also additional entirely original effects.

⛤denotes entire or partial effects from the vanilla table

⛧denotes effects based on vanilla results but altered to suit
☿ denotes entirely new effects

Pyromancy

0. ⛧At great cost. Every time the wizard casts the spell, they make a Luck check. If they fail, someone they know bursts into flame and burns to ash (judge's choice).
1. ☿ Self-immolation. When the wizard casts this spell, the wizard catches fire and takes 1d6 damage each round until they can make a successful DC 10 Reflex save.
2. ☿ Spark. A random item of flammable material within 30' catches fire.
3. ⛧Dehydration. A great thirst causes the wizard to take 1d3 points of Stamina damage (before any spellburn is applied).
4. ⛧Ignition. The wizard must produce a spark or small flame, such as from a match or flint, to be able to cast the spell.
5. ⛧Stifling warmth. A 30' radius around the wizard feels uncomfortably warm for 1d4 rounds and everyone within it suffers -2 to all rolls.
6. ⛧Planar rift. Casting the spell tears open a wormhole to the plane of elemental fire, which remains open for 1d4 rounds. There is a cumulative 1% chance each cast that a fire elemental with HD equal to the caster's level + 5 exits the rift. Randomly determine whether it is hostile, friendly, or neutral toward the caster.
7. ☿ Solar power. A flaming beam from the sun powers this spell. The wizard gets +1d for spell checks when in sunlight and -1d when they are not.
8. ☿ Ring of fire. When successfully casting this spell, a ring of fire with a radius of 1d6 x 10' appears around the caster for 1d4 turns. Any creatures attempting to cross this line or starting their turn standing on it must make a DC 10 Reflex save to avoid catching fire.
9. ⛤Flash casting. A bright flash of flame and a loud whoosh accompany the casting of this spell, revealing the wizard's position to all within sight of him. This likely draws both attention and arrows. 
10. ☿ Flash sweat. The caster's skin and clothes become wet, halving any damage from fire for a turn.
11. ☿ Am I missing an eyebrow? One of the wizard's eyebrows singes when casting. If they have none, hair from elsewhere singes.
12. ⛧Candle. A spectral light hovers around the caster, providing 25' of light.
13. ☿ Boil over. Any and all water within 5' of the wizard heats up and begins to boil. Up to a pint of water will completely evaporate.
14. ☿ Torchburn. As part of casting this spell, the wizard burns at least one torch they are holding to cinders. Each torch burned this way counts as one point of spellburn, giving +1 to the spell check.
15. ⛧Fearsome flames. The wizard's eyes glow with flame, granting +1d to any attempts to intimidate or cause fear.
16. ☿ Spontaneous combustion. When the wizard casts this spell, the target of the spell catches fire and takes 1d6 damage each round until they can make a successful DC 10 Reflex save.
17. ⛤Energy burst. When successfully casting this spell, the wizard is surrounded by wreathes of flame, which do not affect the wizard but ignite flammable objects within 5' and cause 1d6 damage to melee opponents.
18. ☿ Fire within. When successfully casting this spell, the wizard temporarily gains 1d8 Strength for one turn. This temporary Strength cannot be spellburned.
19. ☿ Fire funnel. Any fire within 100' of the caster is transported from its source (which is effectively doused) to then be jetted from the caster. Roll 1d4 to determine where it jets from: (1) palms, (2) eyes, (3) mouth, (4) ears.
20. ⛧Phoenix. After casting this spell, the wizard bursts into flame and crumbles to ash. They will then rise from the ashes 2d4 rounds later. Their items are generally not damaged, though there is a 1% chance their clothes burn leaving the reborn wizard nude.
21. ☿ Smoke cloud. A cloud of smoke with radius 1d3 x 10' obscures vision for 1d6 rounds. Roll 1d3 to determine where the smoke is centered: (1) the caster, (2) the target, (3) aimed somewhere within the spell's range.
22. ☿ Heat metal. When casting this spell, the wizard also heats a metal object of their choice within 30' to a painfully hot degree. Anyone touching, holding, or wearing this object suffers 1d6 damage each round. Choosing to continue holding it requires a DC 15 Fort save. The object cools in 1d12 rounds.
23. ⛧Rain of fire. Casting this spell sparks a tempest of tiny meteors that fall in a 30' diameter centered on the caster. All within the area must make a DC 10 Ref save. Failing the save means the character has been hit by a small fireball, taking 1d6 damage and having a 1-in-3 chance of catching fire.
24. ⛤Tide of ash. All living vegetative matter within 10' per spell level is reduced to ash. Vegetative creatures caught within this radius take 1d14 points of damage per spell level. Dead vegetative matter is unaffected.
25. ⛤Roll again twice.

Gaming Snacks - [blog100] pt. 4, q. 73

This post is part of a series where I put forth a challenge for bloggers to answer all 100 questions on this table by d4 Caltrops. This week I rolled a 73.

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73. What are the best Snacks you've found that work during a Game?

This question is a bit fluffy, but hey, let's roll with it.

It largely depends on the timeslot. I have two regular groups I play with. The 5e table I play in is frequent, short sessions, with players who mostly don't have kids. The DCC table I run is infrequent, longer sessions, with players who mostly do have kids. These factors are relevant to meal times, so that complicates the snack situation a bit.

The shorter sessions are covered by whichever random snacks someone happens to bring on the day. This system works fine.

The less frequent games on the other hand almost need to be organized around meals, and usually include a break for a meal somewhere in the middle. I say "break" - we don't entirely stop playing to eat, but have you ever tried to run a game while eating a bowl of curry? I consider it lucky that we've only ruined one single character sheet by staining it with korma. So there's a snack that certainly doesn't work. Pick something less saucy.

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Here is where I'll link your blog if you join me on this 100-post journey through 100 questions.

This week, Scrolls from the Toaster talks about where undead come from, which is far more interesting than what I eat.

What's your True Name?

DCC RPG p. 293 gives us the Cleric spell True Name which grants some boons related to casting against a target whose true name is known.

True names (and furthermore, "words of power" and onomancy in general) are a fascinating subject to me. DCC gives it the same treatment as it does with many other magical concepts and gives you just enough of a foundation and some nice flavour to build from. One of the things it gives us is this:

"Due to the complexities and magical nature of true names, the cleric cannot easily share a true name with another person. Attempts to write or speak the true name become garbled in the communication process[...]"

This sets up true names as something that exists in the untamable fabric of the universe, beyond mortal ken, that cannot be easily understood or disseminated. This is both flavourful and acts as a limiter for something that could break the game and the fiction, and it means you don't actually have to come up with a true name for everyone. Imagine if you had to invent a meaningful and dramatic true name for Bob the Costermonger because your players developed an obsession with him - and then again for every second NPC they attach themselves to.

Hell, the existence of onomancy could extend to needing to come up with a true name for literally every thing; you aren't expected to know what all your Wizard's incantations are because depending on the magic system this could wind up meaning you need to create an entire darn conlang just so you can have someone throw fireballs. That's a lot to expect of someone who just wants to play elf games. So we kind of just say these words exist but we as players don't know or understand them.

And yet I'm not entirely satisfied with that. If a PC can learn their own true name, the player probably wants to know the name too.

Below I've created a table of types of true names of various languages. The first 6 are literal languages, all of which are ancient languages of immortal beings significant to the cosmology of my setting. The latter 8 are not a specific language, just ways of describing a unique individual. Each time the spell True Name reveals a name, you can roll on this table to decide what kind of name it is and then create (or have the player create) something of that format which suits the character. This also accounts for the odd little detail in DCC that entities seem to have at least three true names: lesser, greater, and secret. This is made possible because they can be from multiple "true" languages or formats.

All of the given types of names can still only be spoken as a true name if the user knows the true name, i.e. they are able to comprehend the name in its magical essence. They can also only be understood by those who know it or can decipher it, as per the spell's rules.

The table can be adjusted to your needs (as all tables can) by replacing languages or changing which title types are available.

The first six language-based examples were generated using Gygax's Extraordinary Book of Names - a useful tool, but you may have your own rules for names or languages in your world.

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Types of True Names

You can roll:

• d14 for the full table
• d12 to exclude the silliest options
• d6 for ancient-language-based names
• d8+6 for non-language-based names

Result	True Name Type	Description	Example
1	Fae	A whimsical name given in the fae language. If Chaotic, it will be Unseelie in nature.	Glaxando
2	Draconic	A name given in the draconic tongue, harsh and spoken with a hiss.	Keruxamanthys
3	Infernal	A demonic name from the depths of the abyss.	Yalmozleegh
4	Astral	A name that echoes across the heavens in the fabric of spacetime.	Var-Talas
5	Outer	Given by the elder gods in a language that can drive you mad to listen to it.	Volekdurnim
6	Alignment	A name in your Alignment tongue, inexorably tying you to cosmic forces.	Rinderlin (Lawful)
7	Title	A title given based on your most significant act.	John who Freed the Gladiators
8	Prophetic	A title that foretells your destiny. (may or may not be true)	John, Usurper of the Theocracy
9	Specific	A wordy descriptor so specific it could only ever apply to you.	John Smith born in Nearport to Jack and Jane, apprentice blacksmith who uncovered the ruins of Karros' Tomb and used Karros' staff to [...]
10	Serial	A unique identifier.	Human #2002767391
11	Given	Just your name.	John Smith
12	Epithet	A simple descriptor that applies to you.	John the Brave
13	Unpronounceable	Something absolutely unintelligible.	Xxxxxk'liiiiipiiscinous;j
14	Targeted Shirt	A descriptor that appears to be specific but is actually designed to appeal to a broad audience.	John the freaking awesome Warrior born in the Month of Harvest, don't mess with him!!!

The Cost of Living - [blog100] pt. 3, q. 40

This post is part of a series where I put forth a challenge for bloggers to answer all 100 questions on this table by d4 Caltrops. This week I rolled a 40.

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40. How much are Lifestyle Expenses for your PCs "Between Adventures?"

Since I'm running DCC, I simply require PCs to carry around rations to keep themselves going. They're listed on the equipment table at 5cp per day's worth, which implies they're supposed to be spending that money. If they have a place to sleep, there isn't much more for them to worry about in terms of upkeep.

This question has led me to wonder if it would be better to replace rations with a general lifestyle expenses system instead. It seems logical to have rations apply to the wilderness and expenses apply to extended stays, but perhaps it's better not to get bogged down in too many systems.

I have considered taking something from AD&D and having characters spend a flat rate per level as lifestyle expenses. Let's call it 1gp per CL per week. This is a fair bit more expensive than rations (even at level 1), but if you hand out treasure as frequently as it's found in the modules, this should create a rate of wealth decay that is enough to motivate seeking treasure but not enough to incur crippling debt if the PCs take a couple weeks' downtime to heal, study, or whatever else you do in your downtime. It scales well; higher-level PCs need more time and money to heal but will also be able to seek greater treasures to tide them over.

My players also have a stable of characters (the other survivors of the funnel) in the starting town who are, while the main party have been adventuring, managing a farm. Do these guys have upkeep costs too? If anything, they should probably have income. I have previously told my players that they can spend their off-time working for a pittance, so I've been assuming that's exactly what those characters have been doing all this time. Presumably they still have expenses of some kind, but they are overall making a slight profit. Let's add a corollary: If you are spending your time working, you do not pay lifestyle expenses.

While writing this I noticed that in all the rules and discussions I've read about this topic, I've never seen anyone answer (or even ask) an important question: What happens when you can't pay? There could be a few reasons for this. Perhaps in practice players don't actually run out of money. This seems likely, given the prevalence of Judges looking for moneysinks for their players.

A more interesting potential reason is that it doesn't actually matter what happens. You don't need anything to happen. The PCs are now broke, and for many adventures that is the reason to go out adventuring in the first place. You could roleplay through the starving adventurers begging on the streets for food and a place to sleep, but more than likely they'll quickly seek a better opportunity - and a good Judge should place that opportunity directly in their path! If it all goes wrong and the players can't make a buck to pay for their expensive lifestyles, well, that's just an easy call-to-adventure. And if they're lost in the wilderness with no resources, the adventure has already started.

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Someone else joined me on this journey! This week, Theo over at Bombgoblin talked about drugs and it's a wild ride. If I told you what the drug is, it would only raise more questions. I strongly recommend checking this one out.

Review: A Zero-Level Grimoire

A Zero Level Grimoire can be found on DriveThru RPG.

I saw this one pop up on the Goodman Games store several months ago. At the time it was available in print and had limited stock. I hesitated to get a copy because I live in Australia. Shipping here is insane at the best of times, and Goodman Games in particular seem very expensive in this regard. I almost had it sent to a friend who could ship it to me for cheaper, but alas, I ran out of time and A Zero Level Grimoire ran out of stock.

I was rather disappointed, and I wasn't the only one. Several commenters in the DCC subreddit had their eye on it too. Eventually I noticed that it was for sale again - this time digitally over on DTRPG. Good enough! I just wanted to get my hands on those spells!

A Zero Level Grimoire provides exactly what it says on the tin: 20 spells based on folk magic out of popular media (along with some fun little quotes from source media). All of the spells are just barely useful - which if you ask me is the perfect amount of useful for a 0th-level spell - and they all have a magical effect you could imagine of some sort of hedge magician. Beer Magic in particular is a fun inclusion, which reminds me of medieval women brewers being accused of witchcraft for being too good at beer.

Worth noting is that the opening page says all listed spells take more than an action to cast, though two of them are explicitly only one "round" long, and at 0th level a round and an action might as well be the same thing. Furthermore, these two spells are the ones that might be most useful in combat, so I found this to be initially confusing.

The mechanics given make 0th-level casting an interesting addition to the early stages of a campaign, although most actually scale fairly well into the later game as well. Each spell is given an "adjuvant", a spell component that can optionally be added to grant higher chances of success. Given the success rates and the fact that non-Wizard/Elf characters only get a d10 to cast (which happens to align with my alternate magic skills), these adjuvants are a welcome addition from both a mechanical and narrative perspective.

Something I was left wanting for was a method for 0-level characters in a funnel to have a selection of spells they know. This is A Zero Level Grimoire! However, all it provides is a recommendation that characters need to have learned these spells through study. This precludes brand new funnel characters from having any. My personal recommendation is that if you're going to allow these spells in your game, 0-level characters get their INT modifier (if positive) in 0th-level spells to begin the game, selected randomly. Players with a relevant occupation might be able to argue their case for why they should have a spell of their choice, INT notwithstanding. 

A Zero Level Grimoire delivers on its promise and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to add a little lower-level magic to their DCC games.

What happens to you when you die? - [blog100] pt. 2, q. 80

This post is part of a series where I put forth a challenge for bloggers to answer all 100 questions on this table by d4 Caltrops. This week I rolled an 80.

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80. What Happens when a Character Dies in your Setting?

They cease to biologically function and can no longer perform actions.

Okay, fine, I'll answer properly.

Something that seems to be inexorably tied to the concept of an afterlife is the existence of realms beyond our own. This is common across both fantasy and real-world religion, with heavens and hells of various descriptions being the usual answer to the question. Reincarnation is a notable exception, but nonetheless a person simply going somewhere else when they die is a prevalent notion in the zeitgeist and seemingly always has been.

It looks like this is going to be a continuation of my recent trend of ignoring DCC's advice to avoid an overly structured approach to the planes. Granted, the way my afterlife planes are designed is intentionally such that the structure doesn't get in the way and you can pretty much slot in whatever you want. The players don't need to (and shouldn't) learn how it "works".

On that note: here's how it works.

When a body dies, its soul escapes. The soul has influence on the corporeal world but exists primarily on the overlapping Ethereal Plane. It doesn't usually spend long here before moving on; it can take moments or hours, but for it to take a day or longer is unusual. These are the cases where something has gone wrong, such as a soul with strong willpower adamantly refusing to leave. These souls are what people call ghosts, and in severe cases where a ghost has lingered for months or years you get a haunting. Beware haunted places and objects, for if you die here your soul may join the occupants.

Where a soul then moves on to varies by circumstance. The Ethereal planes are the only place from which one can travel to planes beyond the physical reach of the Astral Sea that our Mundane World lies within. Deities, devils, demons, and other immortal figures create planes of their own that are not directly connected to our world, and the Ethereal acts as a halfway point through which a tunnel can be opened. Death is therefore a convenient process for those who want to gather souls from the Mundane World.

Deities will often invite their followers - especially the devout ones, including all Clerics - to join them in this plane after death. What this life looks like varies as much as the gods do. Devils prefer more "persuasive" methods than invitation, and demons will outright force you into their hell after destroying your physical body. To an average person who has done good by their god more often than not, and steered well clear of demons and devils, this generally leads to their expected afterlife. A soul with no claimants may be picked up by whomever is willing to take them.

You might notice that there's plenty of room in this process for conflicting claims to a soul, and this is why most deities (even the Chaotic ones) will consider a deal with a devil to be unholy. Deities, even the Chaotic ones, will not generally step in to rescue someone from a devil if their own sinful actions led them there. They may send guardians to save someone from the doom of being taken by a demon, but only the most devout of followers and highest-level Clerics are worth making a cosmic declaration of war over. Greater demons might be able to scare off even powerful gods and occasionally even snatch a Cleric from their rightful afterlife.

It's entirely possible to use this cosmology with DCC's p. 306 suggestion to have a dead party fight their way out of Hell - in fact, you could continue the adventure from the exact moment of their death, in the Ethereal realm. Perhaps the Cleric will have to deal with the fact that they must forsake their own afterlife to follow the party into Hell. It depends on the Cleric whether this would be considered a holy or unholy act. Perhaps the party all end up in different planes and some solo-adventures or group discussion is needed to bring them back together. I'd be wary about continuing play with an individual character who dies as it sets a precedent that death isn't permanent. But for a whole party, there's a few interesting options for continuing the story.

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This week, Judge Toast joined me on this challenge and posted about treasure in a dragon's hoard!

I encourage any other bloggers to check the table for inspiration. Even if you're not up to the challenge of doing them all alongside me, just do one!

Milestone Leveling and XP Leveling Compromise

The debate rages on between XP and Milestones. Perhaps "rages" is overdramatic - it's a conversation that will eternally exist because the answer is different for each table. Milestones seems to be the most popular option in the mainstream crowd, but I suspect my readers (hey, thats you!) lean more toward the older-school XP. Here, I attempt to find a middle ground. Let's create something that is neither comparable to accounting nor has the players asking "do we level up yet?" every session. We can call it Furlong Leveling, because the markers aren't as long as Milestones. Or we can call it "Experiences" Leveling, because it is based on discrete events rather than numerical values.

Goblin Punch wrote about The Legendarium and Popcorn Leveling. These are my primary inspirations, and this leveling system should be compatible with Legendarium-style bonuses (though not with Popcorn Leveling).

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Each player, in addition to their character sheet, has a list of Experiences. Each Experience is one line, and the first page should have 29 lines. This will last up to level 5. Here's a printable one with level markers on it.

An Experience can be:

• Obtaining a treasure
• Thwarting a powerful foe
• Completing the quest
• Making history

Each of these things is something that can be written down as an Experience and grants the player character a title like "Gognord the Minotaur Slayer", "Xenna, Wearer of the Flame Pendant" or "John the Negotiator". NPCs should refer to the characters this way sometimes, to give the players a sense of earning renown.

You go from level 0 to 1 with your first Experience. To use The Portal Under the Stars as an example, there are (maybe) two Experiences characters can gain here: the powerful foe and the treasure. You reach subsequent levels when you have filled a number of lines according to the following chart. Astute DCC players will see how I reached these numbers.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Experiences	1	5	11	19	29	41	55	71	89	109

Your players should be able to have one or two Experiences each session, though it's not guaranteed if they're the type to faff around a lot. All characters involved in the game session get the Experience.

Here are some more details about what counts as an Experience. These things are chosen to encourage fun adventures and are at the Judge's discretion.

Obtain Treasure: "Treasure" is an artifact whose primary value to the players is its monetary worth. It is something they can sell either for a hefty sum of gold, or choose to keep for bragging rights. The exact value that counts depends on the economy of your world, but the main point is that the Mona Lisa counts as treasure but a +1 sword doesn't, even if the sword is worth a lot of gold. Exceptions are mentioned below.

Thwart Foe: Defeating someone legendary or someone by whom you are truly outmatched. A small group of level 1 characters taking out a bugbear boss could count, but to a group of level 5 character's that might just be an average Tuesday. Note that foes must only be thwarted, not necessarily killed or defeated.

Complete Quest: Saving the blacksmith's daughter. This is usually completing a task for someone, giving them good reason to praise your name, though it could also be obtaining a particular artifact of legend or a long-term personal goal.

Making History: This can be anywhere from brokering an alliance to preventing (or causing) an apocalypse. If it goes in the history books, it counts. Being granted a fiefdom or becoming the owner of a legendary artifact can be making history.

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This system has the following advantages:

• No need for accounting, like milestones
• Players track and see their progress, like XP
• More compatible with sandbox play than milestones
• PCs get titles, titles are cool

For further reading on alternate XP for DCC, Scrolls from the Toaster wrote Fellowship Experience which is about having the players reward each other.

The d4 Caltrops Blog Challenge - [blog100] pt. 1, q. 92

d4 Caltrops is a fantastic resource. They're well-known for their d100 tables. They posted this table of 100 topics to inspire burgeoning blogs.

Fuck it, let's do them all.

Here's how the challenge works:

1. Roll a d100 on the table linked above.
2. Blog about that question.
3. Set your own schedule. Post once a week, once a month, whatever. Don't fret if this slows down later either.
4. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you've written 100 posts about all 100 topics. Reroll repeated results, you may want to use smaller dice toward the tail end of the challenge.
5. Tell me about it! I'll link to your post at the bottom of the next one.

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92. What was one Major Conflict/War that has occurred within Recent Memory?

For the first entry I've rolled a 92, which is a difficult question for me to answer. My running campaign world is one that is being built from the bottom up, around the players as they adventure. I began with The Portal Under the Stars and the rest of the campaign so far has expanded from there. It's been a good few adventures now and they're still following the hook from the end of that very funnel.

So as for history, the only thing that is currently set in stone is the implied ancient battle from the "war room" in the dungeon that started the game, and a couple of ruins that they've run into while crossing the surrounding world. Those could still be from any time and involve any peoples. Other modules I've included in the world provide either recent local events or ancient history as a background (or both), which can fit into the world without interrupting anything. This is to be expected (modules are modular!) but what it does mean is that I haven't actually had to think about this so far. It hasn't been relevant to my players' journey.

It feels like a copout answer to just say "it isn't necessary", so I am going to actually answer the question properly as well, but this feels like a good opportunity to repeat something that has been repeated many times in the past, and yet cannot be repeated enough: prepare only what you need to play.

Realizing that your players don't care about the world as much as you do is a tough pill to swallow, but man is it good medicine. They will care! But they don't yet. Players only care about the game, so when they're invested in the game is also when they will begin to care about the world. Your players aren't interested in hearing about the decades-long history of two warring families disputing each others' claim to the throne until one family says "hey go get us that thing" and the other family goes "noooo you can't take our thing" and now your players have a side they like and a side they hate. Suddenly, information about the conflict might be useful, and that makes it compelling.

Quick sidebar: Alternatively, you can have players be a part of building the world like in Dungeon World or this activity by Judge Toast. That's a surefire way to make them care before you've even begun playing, but it means you have to hand over the reins.

What I'm saying is: don't prepare too much history because it doesn't matter until you get there and until it matters nobody cares. However, the corollary to prepare only what you need to play is that once you have prepared what you need, prepare what you want. That's where you can do your deep dives into history that isn't relevant to the game yet (or ever). That's where I can have the lonely fun of making up my own world and history - but I must remember that this part is for me, not for my players. I have to be prepared for them to never see it.

One of these things I've done extra-curricular prep for is the conflict between the Lords of the elemental planes.

DCC RPG lists Ithha, Prince of Elemental Wind as a wizardly patron, and gives him a nemesis: Grom, Lord of Stone. To further steal take inspiration from other authors, I took the reasonable assumption that there would be Lords of fire and water too. I thought the names Krakaal and Splaasha were a bit on-the-nose, though I did like how they sound like the elemental they represent. I ended up with Rulf, King of Elemental Flame and Ocea, Princess of Elemental Water. It's a matter of opinion whether that's any less on-the-nose.

I also deviated slightly from the source material with the relationships between these Lords. I went with the simpler model of elements being at war with their "opposite" (air hates earth, fire hates water) and allied with the other two. To put a twist in this, I stole yet again from this same source and threw in Azi Dahaka, another "Prince" patron, but allied him with Air and made Water his enemy, simply because it seemed to fit thematically.

And why do my players care?

Well, currently, they aren't privy to any of this. They have, however, thwarted the plans of some gnolls. In DCC RPG p. 416 gnolls are said to worship "the wicked elemental deities" and have the ability to invoke Ithha, so that's exactly what the gnolls were doing. Presumably, there are other gnolls elsewhere that worship the other Lords, so this may influence future relations between the party and potential Patrons. Furthermore, any random gnoll encounters in the future may worship different Lords and already have a reason to like or dislike the party, or it may become relevant to future endeavours into the elemental planes (should the party choose to go plane-hopping).

And all I had to do was prep the bare minimum and start playing, then fill in the blanks with other materials I stole from was inspired by. I've deviated from the original premise of this post quite a bit, but I think that's perfectly fine given that d4 Caltrops' table was intended as inspiration. It did inspire me, and I let this post go wherever that inspiration took me.

To round out this meandering post, it turns out that by doing only what I need and adding onto that only what I want, I've developed a history of interdimensional conflict that my players care about without even realizing it. Hell, toward the start of this post I even said there wasn't one, but there clearly is. The details just aren't worked out yet, and that's good. It'll get more nuanced as my players get themselves involved in it and we all - including myself - can discover the history along the way.

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Let's aim for next week for the next randomly selected post. Here is where I'll link to other participants' posts next time.

Infinite Elemental Planes

Elementalists are not all enlightened as to the exact origins of the extraplanar energies they evoke. Most assume it comes from somewhere outside their own space. A handful have rightly concluded that such a space might be accessible from our own.

A lucky few have survived such attempts.

The dangers of teleporting oneself directly into a universe made entirely of fire should be obvious. Opening portals is a safer method of accessing these realms (though prepare to deal with a torrent of water or fire from either of those planes) but even the more placid realms of pure earth and pure air are difficult to traverse or even survive.

If someone wishes to traverse the elemental planes, they would have much better chances in one of the other countless available options.

Do I need to give credit for a 400+ year old image? Kepler made this.

There are many models of the cosmos describing how the planes intersect and overlap. They are all wrong, of course, though some are useful. The elemental planes - at least those of our own Mundane World - can be represented by a tetrahedron. A four sided die, if you prefer. Each of the vertices on the tetrahedron represents the location of a pure elemental plane: fire, air, earth, water. But there are more than just points to a tetrahedron; they have edges and faces, and space within.

Each accessible coordinate in this space is it's own elemental plane, filled with mixed energies from the four pure vertices. There are theoretically infinite possible spaces which could be occupied by planes, though it is uncertain how precisely there can be measured.

The Prime Elemental Planes

Each of the elements has their Elemental Lord. Ithha, Prince of Elemental Wind (DCC RPG p. 356) is one such lord, as is his nemesis Grom. These powerful elementals reside in extreme reaches of the elemental tetrahedron, each in their own universe of near-pure elemental energy. These extremes usually only have a small, central location which is habitable (in a loose sense of the word) to life as we know it. The Prince of Wind takes audience in his palace in the endless sky, while Grom sits guarded by a terracotta army in his underground city.

Para-elemental Planes

At all other points within the tetrahedron and along its edges and surfaces exist universes of varying abundance of the elements. Here are some examples of planes that might be of interest to wizards and foolish adventurers. Elements are listed in order of their abundance, with unlisted elements indicating a complete or near-complete absence.

Archipelago (Water, Earth, Air): Chains of islands in an endless, calm sea.
Crucible (Earth, Fire, Air): A blistering-hot craggy land with rivers of molten iron.
Maelstrom (Water, Air, Earth): An endless tumultuous sea with permanent storms. 
Quagmire (Earth, Water, Air): A primordial swamp of mud and ooze, teeming with life. Toxic, disease-ridden life.
Waste (Earth, Air): A place of sand and dust with little wind and zero moisture. Neither hot nor cold, and very little life (even elementals).

There is a vast array of planes that are not habitable due to overabundance of fire or lack of traversible land, but there is also an endless number of spaces between to explore. The above list is far from exhaustive - any combination you can think of can be travelled to. It simply needs to be located.

Many of the habitable para-elemental planes are ducal territories of lesser elementals subservient to (or caught between) the Elemental Lords. The elemental planes are a space of constant and dynamic conflict.

The Elemental Gate

There exists a machine which was created to locate elemental planes and open up portals into them. It was created by a wizard who needed various elemental resources to power his alchemical pursuits, though he met his demise to an elemental who didn't see the humor in being ripped in half by an interdimensional portal... again. In the wizard's defense, the odds of this happening twice were astronomically slim.

The machine consists of a stone panel with a series of three wooden steering wheels like those on a ship, a theatrically-large throw-switch, a stone archway a human could walk through, and a "display": tetrahedron with a small sphere suspended inside it. Flavour this display to the wizard's style - it could be a glass prism with a rainbow sphere of light in it, or a wrought-iron cage with a mechanical rod holding the sphere up. Each corner should be marked with a symbol or color associated with its.

The wheels are each associated with one axis in 3d space (though they are not marked) and set the co-ordinates of the plane being targeted. The throw-switch opens or closes a portal in the archway to the selected elemental plane. Attempting to turn a wheel while the portal is open causes a violent expulsion of elemental energy. Don't mess around with the machine when it's turned on, dingus.

The "puzzle" for the players is to figure out how the machine works and use it to get to the elemental plane they desire. This probably involves a lot of trial and error, and it'll hopefully be a fun session of improv figuring out what each combination of elements looks like on the fly. Hopefully, the players think to navigate to each corner and test them one at a time. Worst comes to worst, I'm sure the wizard left some cryptic list of co-ordinates around here somewhere.

The reward is a hub zone for adventures across the elemental planes. This is sandbox stuff, so make sure you either ask your players what they intend to do ahead of time, have a bunch of touchstone planes to riff on, or be prepared for extreme multidimensional improv (as one should always be).