Behold the Eye of Neither Rising Nor Falling!

[apeloverage]

I've just updated my dungeon generator, so that it has Tekumel-style 'Eyes' (ancient technological devices which have spell-like effects).

The Eyes are all originals of mine though.

Address in my signature:

[Werrrdna]

Very nice! An exalt for you for your efforts!

[apeloverage]

Thanks!

[apeloverage]

Here are the details, in case anyone wants to use them in their own games:

Eyes are devices built by the Ancients. They look like oversized gems, with a switch on one side which activates the device, and a stylised eye on the other.

Each Eye shoots a beam. The beams from different types of Eyes have different effects. However the Eyes themselves, and the beams, look identical.

Each Eye has 3-18 'charges'. The GM should roll 3 dice and keep track of the number of charges left. If an Eye has no charges left it can still be used. However the GM should roll a dice:

1-4 The Eye works as normal.
5 The Eye closes, never to work again (such an Eye will also be un-sellable).
6 The Eye explodes, doing 4 dice worth of damage to the character holding it, and 2 dice to any character within 3 yards/metres (reduced by armour as normal).

It takes two hands to hold an Eye. Trying to hit a target with the beam is treated as a normal missile attack. Its range is effectively infinite - if you can see it, the beam will reach.


The Eye of Stealing Fae Glamour

If the target of this Eye is an elf, leprechaun or fairy, he or she will lose 1 dice worth of CHR, and the Eye will gain a charge instead of losing it.
If the target is a statted creature who rolls their CHR with a multiplier of x 1 or less, the target will gain 1 dice worth of LK. Their LK will slowly fall to their normal level, at the rate of 1 point every 24 hours.

The Eye of Overwhelming Horror

Anyone hit by this beam must make a save on INT, at the level of the character holding it, or be overcome with fear and horror of that character. Anyone overcome by such fear will run from the character as fast as they can, at all costs, and will only fight if cornered. The effect will last 1-6 minutes of in-game time.

The Eye of Arriving By the Nameless Path

Anyone hit by this beam will notice no change in themselves or their environment whatsoever. Yet they will find that when travelling, they reach their destination in half the time they would otherwise. Anyone travelling with them will likewise arrive in half the time. The effect will last 1-6 weeks, and won't 'stack' - two characters who've been hit by this Eye and travel together won't arrive in a quarter of the time for example.

The Eye of Overcoming All Physical Adversity

Anyone hit by this beam, if they're sick, will instantly be cured of their sickness. If they're not sick, they will heal any wounds at twice the normal rate for the next 1-6 days. If they're not sick or wounded, and are statted, they'll permanently gain a number of points of CON equal to their level.

The Eye of the Ecstatic Madness of Love

Anyone hit by this beam, if they're statted, will treat their CHR and LK as if they were double their real value, but also treat their INT and DEX as if they were half their real value, for 1-6 days of in-game time.

The Eye of Overcoming the Barrier of Tongues

Any statted creature hit by this beam will find, for 1-6 days of in-game time, that they can work out what any other creature who has also been hit by the beam is saying, and manage to communicate with them, even if the two characters have no language in common.

The Eye of Neither Rising Nor Falling

Anyone hit by this beam will be unable to move upwards or downwards for any significant distance, for a number of hours equal to the roll of 2 dice. They may, however, be carried. Otherwise they must stay on the same dungeon level.

[mahrundl]

Have an Exalt. Now I shall go and look at the new version...

Strictly speaking, I suppose that those should be the other way around. However, your generator is one of my Toolbar bookmarks in Firefox, and I'm confident that the Exalt won't be misplaced.

[apeloverage]

I've just added secret doors, and some similar features.

[mahrundl]

Jul 19, 2008 17:43:14 GMT -5 apeloverage said:

I've just added secret doors, and some similar features.

Nice work, Apeloverage!

I was going to report a couple of minor grammar errors, but a power failure wiped out the post I was writing earlier. As I recall, one was the use of 'effected' when it should have been 'affected', and the other involved what appeared to be an inappropriate double negative. They weren't especially serious issues though.

Two things that I did notice:

* There are a lot of stairs in the dungeons! For example, one level had 8 rooms and two paths to other levels shown on the map. Of the 8 rooms, I think that 5 or 6 had stairs. That seems excessive, to me. While I didn't count any other levels in that detail, I do recall seeing comparable numbers elsewhere.

* Folding ships seem to turn up a lot. This may be deliberate, or a function of your random table item frequencies, but I'd have thought that they'd be fairly uncommon.

But these are minor niggles. The generator as a whole is awesome!

[mahrundl]

Forgot one thing: with the illusionary walls, it might be worth noting the level of magic involved in creating each wall, in case someone wants to try dispelling it.

[apeloverage]

OK, done.

[apeloverage]

Jul 20, 2008 9:05:47 GMT -5 mahrundl said:

There are a lot of stairs in the dungeons! For example, one level had 8 rooms and two paths to other levels shown on the map. Of the 8 rooms, I think that 5 or 6 had stairs. That seems excessive, to me. While I didn't count any other levels in that detail, I do recall seeing comparable numbers elsewhere.

I was going off this blog entry:

jrients.blogspot.com/2008/03/anybody-else-remember-telengard.html

which said that you should have lots of ways to get from one level to another.

Remember that, if the first level is 'designed' for level 1 characters, the next level will be for level 2 characters, the next for level 3, and so on. So just because they can go downwards doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea.

But I could make some of the stairs hidden, or have trapdoors that need to be forced open?

[mahrundl]

Jul 20, 2008 12:39:33 GMT -5 apeloverage said:

I was going off this blog entry:

jrients.blogspot.com/2008/03/anybody-else-remember-telengard.html

which said that you should have lots of ways to get from one level to another.

Remember that, if the first level is 'designed' for level 1 characters, the next level will be for level 2 characters, the next for level 3, and so on. So just because they can go downwards doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea.

But I could make some of the stairs hidden, or have trapdoors that need to be forced open?

Hmmm. I suspect that when Jeff says 'lots', he may not have meant quite as many as you have put in...

I agree with the concept, in that there should not only be one way up or down in most cases - although there are times when having only one is the way to go. But what you have there conservatively looks to be on the order of 1 room in 3 or so having stairs or the equivalent. That seems excessive, to me at least.

I don't know Jeff, other than through his blog writings, but I'd guess that 1 in 10 is more the sort of ratio that he was thinking. Or perhaps 1 in 8. On a dungeon level of 40 rooms, that's 5 sets of stairs - which should be ample. (Stairs to isolated sub-levels would be in addition to this number, I imagine.)

Your suggestions for variety - hidden stairs, trapdoors, chutes, that sort of thing - would help quite a bit.

(It belatedly occurs to me that since you list both the up and down stairs, I might be reading the two ends of each stair as separate stairs. Perhaps a map symbol - ^ for up, v for down maybe? - would make it clearer.)

[Mhegrrrim Skulltosser]

The number of stairs might be more interesting if more random. Having 1-3 stairs on one level, then finding the next with 6+ stairs. The GM can modify stair direction, have stairs lead to isolated rooms, or even end in a Bamph! teleport to some other place...