I remember the first D&D character that I ever played (probably 30 years ago), he was a dwarven fighter, Darden SteelForge. I imagined him as muscle-bound, bruiser, a famous smith turned to the life of adventure. My GM at the time fed into this idea and gave me an amazing hammer, polished but still pitted from the life it had. It was a family heirloom passed down for centuries, it had been used to slay dragons, it had seen wars with goblins, taken down beholders, and now that power was mine.
I met my party in a tavern, as you are wont to do, and we were off to stop some farm raiding kobolds. In less than an hour we had our first encounter with the little beasts. It was my turn, and the little bugger was cowering before me, I drew my hammer back…. and asked the GM, what special properties did my hammer give me? Better hit, more damage, maybe fire damage, that would be cool (dwarves, forges and all), and she said, “It’s just a hammer.” I was dumbstruck, “But..it slayed dragons?”, she smiled and said, “Oh. That’s just for the story.”… Crestfallen I took my swing, and missed, horribly.
We finished the adventure, losing our wizard in the process, and it was time for looting the treasure the kobolds had collected. I didn’t want to fight over the things that the other three player wanted,I looked around, and nestled in the back of the cave was a dagger, not just any dagger… a +1 dagger. “Wait a minute. You mean to tell me that this little knife does the same damage as my “heirloom” and has a better chance to hit?!”, I stared at the GM, she just shrugged. As soon as we made it back to town, I sold the “ancient hammer” to a black smith for 5 silver, and never looked back.
Throughout my years of playing and GMing, I could never understand why players and GMs got so excited over the idea heirloom items. Sure, every once in a while you’d get that player that held onto that item or weapon forever, but chances are, after the first adventure, they never used it again. About 25 years ago I was running an AD&D campaign and I wanted an enemy that would stand out. This was about the time that Star Wars was making a comeback and Episode 1 was announced, so I thought what better way than to make a fighter with a light saber. Everything I came up with made the light saber either too weak for my fighter, or too powerful if the players got it. So I adjusted the damage and properties based on the level, and the more I developed that the more I realized that this was an heirloom weapon, something that the player wouldn’t throw away at the first chance cause there was a new toy. Something that, if stolen or lost, it would feel like a piece of them went with, and they couldn’t go to the smithy and replace it.
Here you will find some of the scalable weapons and items that I have created. They are not good for every GM/player and they may or may not fit into the design of your game, but give them a look and see.
As a side note, here is what I imagine my ‘heirloom’ hammer from above to be.
In the far north, after a lengthy battle with orcs that nearly wiped out Clan DeepAxe, the clan leader, Jerdan SteelForge, saw that his people wouldn’t last the winter. He set out to find some way to get supplies for his kinsmen. After braving weather and monsters for weeks, he found himself slumped in a cave, contemplating the futility in his actions. Awaking from a sleep that he expected would be his last, he found a warm fire and an ancient looking dwarf. As payment for removing the orc menace from “his lands”, and continuing to do so, he offered the dwarf a diamond that would create food and drink, maybe not enough to get full, but enough to survive the winter. Upon accepting the old dwarf took on his true shape, a massive dragon that stretched further than the dwarf could see. Its scales were no less impressive, ranging in all the colors of the metallic, chromatic and gem dragons, and all the ones in between. Jerdan realized that this was one of the ancient dragon gods of legend. With its huge claw, it pricked a spot on it’s foot and where the single drop of blood landed, a shimmering gateway appeared, that led to the front gates of Clan DeepAxe. The dwarf also noticed that the blood had solidified into a multi-hued metal. A whisper in his mind told him to take it and go.
After feeding and telling his story to the clan, he was struck with an idea, almost as if he heard a whisper and he gathered the best craftsmen and runesmiths and headed to the forge. Two long, grueling weeks at the forge and it was done, using the dragon’s blood-metal they had masterfully crafted a near-indestructible warhammer, that shone of mithral, but danced with all colors in the light, and safely encased within, was the lifesaving diamond.
Jerdan used the hammer in many conflicts, against unimaginable foes, and when it was time, he passed it to his daughter, the clans finest warrior and their next leader. The tradition continued for generations, passing it to the dwarf that would bear the weight of Clan DeepAxe’s agreement with the ancient god, status and name not mattering, the hammer seeming to choose the next wielder on it’s own, then directing the current owner when it was time to hand it over.
Hammer of SteelForge Versatile 1d8/1d10. Returns, has a throwing range of 20/80. Natural dwarven enemies take damage equal to weapon damage plus one additional damage die every 3 levels. (levels 1 base dmg, level 3 = +1 dice, level 6 = +2 dice, level 9 = +3 dice, etc…). Starting at 3rd level, the wielder can summon a full meal a number of times equal to their character level +2. At level 10, the weapon grants the ability to cast Hero’s Feast 1/week for every 5 levels (lvl 15: 2x/week, lvl 20: 3/week).
This is a hack that evolved organically from a hobby project to convert the Dungeons and Dragons Curse of Strahd board game into a prototype for a random dungeon deck using a standard deck of playing cards. I used 5e but it could easily be system agnostic.
The idea is simple, each card represents an encounter or encounter modifier of some sort. You can play theater of the mind or setup each encounter on a mat or with tiles, however you might typically do things. However, the cards allow a interesting middle ground, you can actually lay them out in the shape of the dungeon regardless of how you execute combat, as sort of a strategic layer map. Almost like you’d see in a video game. This removes the need to sketch out the entire dungeon and you can just use your mat, tiles or board to map a single room at a time.
I use the suits as a thematic reference, face cards to generate more significant events. Black suits are bad, red are good. The Ace or King of Spades will typically be a boss and mini-boss encounter. Hearts control the short and long rest opportunities. You can shuffle those into the lower portion of the deck from the start or discard rest cards to shuffle any encounter back in. Face cards for other encounters might be treasure hoards or good NPC encounters. You can use the jokers as party level ups for milestone leveling or just remove them and count XP.
To generate the dungeon spatially with the cards you simply connect the cards long edge to short edge as you draw them. Each card-room has d4 doors, 1 meaning the door you came through. 2 meaning 1 additional door attached to any side you choose however it must not connect back to another room if you can help it. If you roll 4 each side of the card has a door. To represent each door secretly place a card face down to represent the new rooms and their hidden contents.
To Scale encounters I like to use a character count modifier represented by “C”. For example: Skeletons Cd6. This means roll a d6 for each character in the dungeon (even if the party is split).
Here’s an quick example deck Its roughly set for a group of 4 characters around level 5, it scales a some for character count but is not fair for a single character, “its dangerous to go alone”. C is short for Character count, it helps to scale for the number of characters.
Castle of the Damned
2♠ Zombies! Cx2 3♠ Bat Swarms xC – Disadvantage to surprise them. 4♠ Giant Rats Cd4 – On Death 35% chance to reveals as a Wererat at full HP same initiative – Disadvantage to surprise them. 5♠ Fade to Gray – Wraiths xC + Specters D6 6♠ Skeleton Cavalry – A Large Room with 2C Skeletons Mounted on Skeletal horses. If a Mounted Skeleton moves 20′ in a straight line before attack they have advantage and automatically critically hit. 7♠ Ghouls 2C + Giant Bats xC – Disadvantage to Surprise them. 8♠ Toxic Zombie Hoard -Cd6 Zombies, if they pass Undead Fortitude all adjacent creatures take d6 poison damage. 9♠ Court of the Damned – D4+C Vampire Spawn – Spawn roll D20+6 vs Characters passive perception to surprise the party. 10♠ Skeleton Defenders Cd3 Skeletons with heavy armor, shields (+4 AC) and spears. J♠ The General – Wight Lord (125hp [physical dmg resistance], AC 16 Wight with Lance) mounted on Hydra with C heads, and C Zombies Q♠ Banshee – The doors magically lock behind you until the Banshee is defeated. Knock or other powerful magic is the only other out. K♠ Devourer + Zombies xC A♠ Vampire Lord – If you have the A♢ or destroyed the Vampire’s resting place (J♣) the vampire cannot use its Misty Escape
2♣ Pit Trap – First 2 characters in marching order may make perception check DC 20 to spot the trap, dwarves have advantage. If they fail, in marching order each character makes a DC20 Dex save to avoid each following character gets a +2 (its easier if you were at the back). Falling is 2d6 bludgeoning + d12 piercing on a failed save. If all characters fall the party gets a DC 15 Group Athletics check or they die in the pit. 3♣ Hypnotic Mirror – DC13 Wisdom Save or turn against the party till unconscious (players who turn against the party are on the same team). 4♣ Dead Bodies – Wisdom save DC10 or disadvantage on next initiative 5♣ Necrotic Ward – A character proficient in Arcana or through the use of a spell may read the magic runes and know them for what they are, otherwise all characters immediately make a DC14 Dexterity save or take 8d6 Necrotic damage, half as much on a successful save. 6♣ Haunted Chapel. 3 ghosts emerge as the party enters. May be be dismissed with DC20 Religion check (1 Chance) 7♣ A Kenku Assassin fires a poison bolt at the character at the back of the marching order unless a character has a passive perception of 30+. A Neutral or Evil character may attempt a DC13 Persuasion check to gain it as a follower. 8♣ What is Lost – A room collapses, DC10 Dex save to retreat or take 2d12 damage. Draw cards until you draw a red card, discard it. Place the rest on top in random order. 9♣ Flooded Grave – A snake filled pool of water stretching 60 feet leads to any exits this room has. Characters wearing medium or heavy armor must make disadvantaged athletics checks for each turn in the water or they cannot move further that turn, additionally those in heavy armor suffer d12 damage unless they have water breathing. Each character that ends its turn in the water is pursued by 2 snakes and each makes a +0 attacks each causing d12 poison damage. A character may attack snakes with disadvantage any damage slays, and you will not be further pursued unless you re-enter the water. You may help adjacent allies attack their snakes. 10♣ A Portcullis Slams down behind you. 50 Cumulative Strength to Break or discard a Rest Card to disable. You cannot back track until you defeat this challenge and you are trapped if no further rooms are generated. J♣ Vampires Resting Place – If you have drawn the A♠ at any point in this game you may destroy the Vampires resting place after facing a Helmed Horror, otherwise a character must pass a DC18 Intelligence Check to do so, if you do no destroy the resting place shuffle it back into the deck. The Helmed Horror has a 60% chance to be immune to specific spells cast on it of level 2 or higher, max 3. Q♣ Entropy – Draw a card, if its red make a DC 15 Group Intelligence Save to play it, otherwise discard it. K♣ Impending Doom – Draw cards until you have 2 black, stack them, you must face each of them in order before proceeding. Place any red cards drawn on the bottom of the deck. A♣ Cohort of Evil – Combine next two Encounters (Stack 2 cards as one room) draw cards till you get 2♣s. Place the rest on top of the deck in random order.
J Milestone Level Up (Optional)
2♡ Short Rest 3♡ Short Rest 4♡ Short Rest +Inspiration 5♡ Short Rest DC12 Con Check to Save 6♡ Short Rest DC12 Int Check to Save 7♡ Short Rest DC12 Nature Check to Save 8♡ Short Rest Save 9♡ Short Rest Save 10♡ Short Rest Save J♡ Long Rest Q♡ Long Rest +Inspiration K♡ Long Rest DC 15 Survival Check to Save A♡ Long Rest Save
2♢ Treasure Chest d100 gold per character + Inspiration 3♢ A Strange Invitation – +1 Weapon of Random Type d20 1 dagger, 2 Longbow, 3 Javelin, 4 Light Hammer, 5, Mace, 6 Staff, 7 Sickle, 8 Spear, 9 Lt Crossbow, 10 Whip, 11 Flail, 12 Glaive, 13 Greatsword, 14 Halberd, 15 Maul, 16 Morningstar, 17 Pike, 18 Trident, 19 War Pick, 20 Warhammer 4♢Greater Healing Potions d4+1. 5♢ Runic Scrolls – Characters who identify these items, either by standard means or with a short rest may identify them as protection runes which may be permanently to armor. The first grants resistance to Necrotic Damage. They other a random damage type as follows: d12, 1=Slashing, 2=Piercing, 3=Bludgeoning, 4=Cold, 5=Acid, 6=Psychic, 7=Fire, 8=Necrotic, 9=Radiant, 10=Force, 11=Thunder, 12=Lightening. 6♢ Alchemists Lab – d6+1 rolls on Magic Item Table B (-11, min 1) 7♢ Wizards Room – d6 spell Rolls on Magic Item Table C (-11, min 1) +1 level 4 scroll. 8♢ Bag of Fangs – Contains 1D4+C carved wooden Dire Wolf canines. When buried, a fang quickly sprouts a wolf-like tree golem with d4 x user-level HP, AC 14, and uses the users proficiency bonus for attack and damage bonuses, a successful strike does 2d4. They are vulnerable to fire damage and immune to poison. 9♢ Wondrous Stash –2Rolls on Treasure Table D (-5, min 1). +Inspiration 10♢ Cowering Tentacles – Make a group Arcane check DC10 (half must pass). On success a Flumph approaches the party. Good aligned characters may make a DC12 Persuasion roll to gain the Flumph as a companion (highest roll has preference). J♢ Lost Expedition – A figure stands over 3 dead bodies, they are startled when you enter but relieved to see you once they realize you might be their salvation. Any character wishing to take on a companion make a charisma check, the highest roll takes them. Roll a d4, this person is a: 1 Gnome Scout, 2 Human Priest, 3 Dwarf Veteran, 4 Elf Knight (all in the MM appendix); the other 3 are lying dead on the floor. Q♢ Brand of Flames – A club wrapped in spiked chains (1D6 Bludgeoning + 1D10 fire dmg). If identified a wield may attune to it, then the character can infuse a their attack with Fire Bolt (dmg based on their lvl: 1st level (1d10), when you reach 5th Level (2d10), 11th level (3d10), and 17th level (4d10)) 5 times a day. The wielder also takes 1d4 fire dmg backlash when they use its power. When you attune make a DC 15 Wisdom save or suffer 2d6 Fire damage. Once attuned you may transfer the chains to a different weapon which removes the enchantment from the club (once per day). K♢ Treasure Hoard – 1 roll on Magic Item Table H, 2 on G, 3 on F. d10x1000gp of items per player. +Inspiration A♢Hero’s Calling – One Item from treasure table I. Players have right of refusal in descending Charisma score order. +Inspiration
J Milestone Level Up (Optional)
What’s left? To complete this deck I’d like to add room descriptions for more of the encounters, and obviously lots of playtesting along with tightening up the rules.
Extra Rules
All characters may start with inspiration.
Unless otherwise stated NPCs make or fail saves the as their leader outside of combat.
Options
Secret Doors If a room must connect to another room this means the door you just found is a secret entrance. If you can enter an unexplored room through a secret entrance you gain advantage on the surprise check. You may mark these with a token such as a penny.
Treasure Face cards which are combat encounters generate treasure hoards when they are completed. Number cards generate regular treasure.
Alert Level If you flee from combat with intelligent creatures 4+ there’s a 50% chance the entire dungeon will go on alert. This grand disadvantage to all surprise checks.
Companion Limit A character may have companions of the same alignment equal to 1+Charisma Bonus.
Exit When you draw the last card of the deck if it is a room with more than 1 door it is a dungeon exit.
Fleeing to flee from a combat encounter discard a red card then shuffle the current encounter back into the deck. Keep in the mind the secondary consequences of shuffling.
Difficulty Setting to reduce the difficulty especially if you choose to not shuffle harder encounters to the bottom of the deck you may start with a number of rest tokens which function just like the cards.
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