Slave Maker / Unique NPCs

NPC Development Tables for Slave Maker 

All NPCs are built the same way. 

Choose or roll their Type first. This remains their core identity (for immediate, practical purposes - it can change if they somehow escape slavery or are re-assigned). Then roll the four universal tables and the appropriate continental/bloodline table.  

A blue-skin raised in the rainforest still carries some desert bloodline traits; a green-skin raised in the desert still carries some rainforest bloodline traits. The place they actually grew up exerts the stronger cultural and lifestyle influence.

Slave Types (1D6)

1 Meat-slave 

2 Sex-slave

3 Breeder

4 Labourer 

5 Craftsman

6 Sage-slave 

Other Types compatible with these tables; free tribesman, sailor/explorer, nomad, scavenger, tribal king/retainer, etc. 

Universal Tables (apply to every NPC)

Characteristic Feature (3d6)

3. One eye permanently clouded or missing  

4. Unusual height (noticeably taller or shorter than tribal average)  

5. Distinctive scar pattern across face or torso from old branding or fighting  

6. Extra finger or fused toes  

7. Voice is unnaturally deep, high, or rasping  

8. Skin carries a permanent mottled discoloration unrelated to tribe  

9. Missing or crippled hand/foot that still functions adequately with practice  

10. Unusually fine or coarse hair texture that stands out  

11. Birthmark shaped like a crude symbol or animal  

12. Teeth filed or naturally sharp enough to be noticeable  

13. Chronic limp that does not slow them much  

14. Eyes of slightly different colours  

15. Body covered in old, healed lash or burn marks that form a pattern  

16. Unusually long or short limbs relative to torso  

17. Permanent tremor in one hand  

18. Striking physical symmetry or beauty that draws unwanted attention  

Personality (3d6) 

3. Pathologically honest even when it harms them  

4. Quietly calculating; rarely speaks first  

5. Explosive temper that burns out quickly  

6. Superstitious to the point of daily ritual  

7. Cheerfully fatalistic  

8. Obsessively clean or fastidious about their few possessions  

9. Deeply suspicious of kindness  

10. Greedy for stories and news more than material things  

11. Stoic almost to the point of appearing emotionless  

12. Quick to form intense, short-lived loyalties  

13. Dry, cutting humour that lands at the worst moments  

14. Constantly testing boundaries of authority  

15. Protective of the weak in a possessive, controlling way  

16. Melancholic and given to long silences  

17. Ambitious in a patient, long-game fashion  

18. Seemingly fearless because they have already accepted death  

Personal Background Feature (3d6) 

3. Survived a childhood disease that killed most of their age-mates  

4. Lost entire immediate family in a single raid or disaster  

5. Was once free and is now enslaved (or vice versa) within the last few years  

6. Carries a debt of life to someone of the opposite skin colour  

7. Witnessed (or committed) a betrayal that still defines their caution  

8. Spent formative years as a captive of a rival tribe before returning or being sold  

9. Has a living child or sibling they have not seen in years  

10. Once owned a small boat or valuable tool that was stolen or destroyed  

11. Received an unexpected act of mercy that they still cannot explain  

12. Was trained in a skilled craft then deliberately crippled or sold away from it  

13. Survived alone in the wild for a season after being abandoned or shipwrecked  

14. Knows the true (and dangerous) identity of someone important  

15. Has killed in self-defence and still dreams about it  

16. Was marked for sacrifice or ritual death and escaped  

17. Carries a secret name or true lineage they never speak  

18. Once held a position of minor trust or authority that was stripped from them  

Unique Motivation (3d6)

3. Accumulate enough wealth or favour to buy freedom (or someone else’s)  

4. Find and kill (or protect) one specific person  

5. Learn a particular craft, secret, or piece of knowledge at any cost  

6. Return to a specific place before they die  

7. Prove they are not what others assume them to be  

8. Secure a permanent, safe water source or equivalent security for themselves  

9. Exact quiet, patient revenge for an old wrong  

10. Protect the only person or animal that has ever shown them consistent loyalty  

11. Rise high enough in status that no one can ever own them again  

12. Escape the cycle of capture and sale entirely, even if it means isolation  

13. Discover whether the stories of the other continent’s heartlands are true  

14. Father or mother a child that will not be born into slavery  

15. Master a skill so completely that it becomes their new identity  

16. Die on their own terms rather than as property  

17. Understand why the two skin colours hate each other so completely  

18. Leave behind something (a story, a craft, a bloodline) that outlasts them  

Continental / Bloodline Tables

Desert Background Features 

(Blue-skin bloodline & cultural/environmental)

(3d6 — some traits travel with the blood even if raised elsewhere; growing up in desert culture is stronger)  

3. Instinctive water-hoarding; can go longer than most on minimal rations  

4. Salt-scarred or wind-etched skin texture that never fully softens  

5. Acute sense for distant water or approaching sandstorms  

6. Deep, almost religious respect for the four water grades and the caste logic they enforce  

7. Knowledge of how to travel the Singe and Scorch with minimal gear  

8. Preference for night movement and rest during peak heat  

9. Ability to read subtle tracks and signs in sand, salt crust, or black dust  

10. Cultural habit of speaking of water as rank and status  

11. Resistance to thirst-induced delirium that would break others  

12. Familiarity with sabkha and salina hazards (sinking crusts, salt blindness)  

13. Tendency to view shade and mist as temporary gifts rather than rights  

14. Bloodline memory of deep-desert survival myths (underground lakes, black glass)  

15. Habit of measuring value primarily in water, salt, and portable labour  

16. Scar tissue or calluses from childhood exposure to extreme heat and abrasive dust  

17. Quiet contempt for those who waste or spill drinkable water  

18. Unshakeable belief that the Charr holds both death and ultimate power  

Tropical Rainforest Background Features 

(Green-skin bloodline & cultural/environmental)

(3d6 — some traits travel with the blood even if raised elsewhere; growing up in rainforest culture is stronger)  

3. High tolerance for constant humidity, insects, and fungal growth on skin or gear  

4. Natural aptitude for moving through dense canopy or tangled undergrowth  

5. Acute hearing for distant animal calls, snapping branches, or approaching canoes  

6. Knowledge of which vines, barks, and leaves are useful for cordage, poison, or medicine  

7. Comfort with wet feet and the smell of rot; dryness feels unnatural  

8. Cultural habit of reading social status through body paint, scars, and feather or bone adornment  

9. Ability to sleep lightly while remaining aware of jungle night sounds  

10. Resistance to many common rainforest fevers and parasites that floor outsiders  

11. Instinctive understanding of rising water, flash floods, and seasonal river changes  

12. Preference for layered, overlapping speech and indirect answers  

13. Familiarity with the dangers of the deep canopy and the creatures that never touch ground  

14. Bloodline memory of endless green as both provider and prison  

15. Habit of measuring wealth in tools, dried foods, and living relationships rather than pure water  

16. Scar patterns or intentional modifications from jungle childhood rites or accidents  

17. Quiet contempt for those who cannot move silently or who fear the dark under the trees  

18. Unshakeable belief that the true heart of the world is wet, green, and watching  

These six tables plus Type give every NPC a quick, distinctive identity without overlap. Roll all of them when you need a fully fleshed individual; roll only the ones that matter for a walk-on character. 

The developers wish you to be aware that wishing for expanded tables containing more examples, for example a 5D6 table, is a wish for more variety of slaves in the world. You should probably meditate on how you just did that. 16 to the power of 5 (16x5, 5 times, or 16 x 16 x 16 x 16 x 16) is 1,048,576 possible unique combinations with the existing 3D6 tables. Your imagination is probably sufficient to create individuality between any two characters who score the exact same results in the same game. 

Slave Maker

Streamline WoD AI

One of the things which I love most about WhiteWolf’s WoD games (the original pentacle, Mark Rein-Hagens vision, before it went silly) is the character creation process. 

I used to hate it, for two specific reasons, which are exactly the same reasons I now like it best. Strange how that works. 

The most famous of course is VtM which changed the industry forever. The same two items is in all the games. 

1) it takes yonks and a lot of headwork. The weights-and-measures system is tricky because it’s well balanced, which shows up during storytelling. 

2) You learn to streamline. You can’t fit everything from your original concept into the limited points pool available. You have to make critical choices. This actually makes the game better. The characters are simplified into distilled versions of themselves. It’s easier for everyone to navigate. Over-Powered characters are toned down by a process of compromise. 

This transfers to story scenes where the same faculty of making high-consequence critical choices is played out as emotionally and mentally engaging experiences. Real feels are triggered. Attachment is as high as the stakes.

These vital life skills, trained at the tabletop, when applied in reality are pure bliss of knowing you are doing the right thing. The framework is understood by the community. 

The only other thing to mention here is the lead-line of the franchise is they are games of personal horror. They’re not games of generic horror. They’re not spider to put the world first and your characters interests and processing of events second. It’s the other way around. Too many Storytellers forget that. 

The structure is one of confronting the Jungian Shadow through the protective shield of acting out real life, albeit exaggerated, dynamics - from the safe distance of playing a depersonalised version of it in a stylised realm of fiction. 

For psychologists this is heavenly. I don’t know for certain how much the game designers intended for that consequence. 

I do not play WoD games with ‘clients’ FTR as it would be inappropriate. The same skill set is invoked (TA etc, for assessment and diagnostic) when Pathworking through RPG as for NLP, CBT, yada. 

The difference is in WoD the shadow is free, unchained, unbound, hence the dopamine high of liberation hits deeper. Downtime construing aftercare is necessary after a session, for assimilation. The post-game crash needs managing. Sweet carbs and reorientation is part of the session. 

After that, regular D&D don’t cut so deep. 

A thing changed after 2000. Online sessions avoids the aftercare and keeps the group as relative strangers compared with sharing the same sweaty breath and eye contact without distractions. The intimacy has been lost, the group bond while retaining dopamine hooks, is indifferent. No close proximity means no close proximity. 

Perhaps that’s another safety valve. 

For me, it means less actual playing/storytelling with groups, or the intimate 1-1 sessions of underground legend, and more actual character design by myself. 

Then AI came along to do a lot of that work better than most people can. People probably don’t openly talk about it. 

Slave Maker

S L A V E   M A K E R  ™

ttrpg

T R I G G E R  W A R N I N G 

sensitive content 

Disclaimer: There is no intention to cause offence to anybody in any way with this Campaign Setting. The need for new worlds of adventure and storytelling means travelling beyond the previously copyrighted tropes of the industry to get inventive with exciting situations which many people are afraid to touch on. If you do not like it, nobody is making you play it. 

Slave Maker ™ is a ttrpg inspired by WotC decision to remove slavery from their re-release of D&D's Dark Sun campaign world. "Every action has an opposite and equal re-action." This blog is the reaction to the attempted nice-ification of the RPG community by WotC. Some of us live in a more gritty real world than the pink fluffy la-la-land WotC intend to sell to whoever buys their products. This game is intentionally politically un-correct. It pushes into directions WotC are pushing away from. There is a need for this outlet in the community. Human Nature being what it is. The creators can differentiate between a work of fiction and the real world; therefore the use of fantasy games as a safety outlet for exploring the darker side of human nature is preferable than actually doing this stuff for real. Real world slavery is not encouraged, endorsed or enabled by the existence of this fantasy product. 

Slave Maker ™ is a world where the Slave economy is bustling. There are continents of savages who can be captured and subdued into slavery. There are ships. 

The skin colours of the people on this world is; Green and Blue. The Blue Skins are tribal. They have been enslaving each other for longer than history can remember. The Green Skins are tribal. They have been enslaving each other for longer than history can remember. It is a slave world. Slavery is natural and a part of life for everybody. The Blue Skins live on a desert continent. The Green Skins live on a tropical Rainforest continent. There is racism between the two groups. There is racism between different tribes comprising the continental groups. Skin-tone indicates tribe, more than parentage, in the common cases of mixed parentage. Capture of members of other tribes to enforce slavery is a normal and ancient way of life and culture. Civilisation is founded on it. 

We are using the same continents and world as previously used in the RPG Campaign World: Wild Witch Wood West, however his game is set thousands of years before the events of that Campaign Setting. Both continents are different in terms of human societies, if not in ecologies. 

In recent generations, explorers from the two continents have been interacting. Brave green-skin sailors from the Rainforest continent crossed the ocean and arrived at the Desert where they were captured and forced into servitude of a blue-skin tribes King. Brave sailors of the blue-skin tribe were sent to cross the ocean to construct more ships and to capture more green-skin slaves. They were captured by the green-skins and forced into slavery. More adventurers from both continents continued to cross the ocean for the same purpose. So it continued. 

The Player Characters in this game can come from a variety of available backgrounds. One option is that they are the crew of a ship whose mission is to cross the ocean, harvest exotic materials (glass, wood, foods, livestock, slaves) and return to their own tribe. Although there are not many ships in existence, they have somewhat of a pirate mentality toward other ships who are after all from other tribes. The tribes are all small enough to typically afford only one ship, if any at all. All of the tribes featuring at the forefront of the Campaign Setting at this point are coastal tribes; either blue-skinned desert dwellers or green-skinned rainforest dwellers. 

Ship Types: (listed in order of commonality): 

Canoe, Raft, Boat, Small Ship, Large Ship, Huge Ship (mythic) 

Although all ship types are theoretically capable of crossing the ocean, most of them are for rivers or coastal. This is a fantasy world which is not bound by the historic development of ship types from planet earth.  Obviously there are less ships on the desert continent although tree-lined oasis, rivers and wooded coastal regions exist to provide sufficient resources for populations. This game is set during an era of the discovery that exotic slaves from overseas can be acquired, making the risky ocean crossing worthwhile for many slavers. 

Most of the game is not intended to be set on the seas. The game can be played in several ways, it is versatile. A focus of the game is an exploration of dehumanisation processes. It is only in this backdrop that we can accurately appraise the value of Humanitarianism. 

Slave Markets 

Coastal travel is the most common long-distance form of travel simply because it is faster, easier and cheaper. Dockside slave markets are the most common and fetch the best prices, where inland slave markets generally raise the prices of slaves due to logistical costs. 

Types of Slaves:  Meat-slave, Sex-slave, Breeder, Labourer, Craftsman, Sage-slave (Wisdom-Holder). D6 for random type. 

TBC

Next Up : The Desert 

The Scald, The Singe, The Scorch, The Charr

Sabkha and Salina

The Scald: A thin, patchwork green ring of two ecologies. The fertile coastal fringe. Mountain waters hit desert heat, creating high humidity, dense mist, and hyper-accelerated, steamy green growth. Fiercely defended and over-exploited. 

The Singe: The transition zone or fringe. Here, the vegetation is not yet dead, but it is parched, yellowed, and chemically altered by the proximity to extreme heat. Scavengers, hunter-gatherers, nomads. 

The Scorch: The intermediate wasteland. The terrain is blackened, dead, stripped of moisture, and actively hostile. Creatures and fauna which have adapted to survive here. 

The Charr: The deep, calcined heart. The central desert where everything has been reduced to pure elemental ruin, cracked obsidian-like terrain, and shifting black dust. Mythologies of deep wells to underground lakes are unsubstantiated.

Sabkha: Flat, low-lying desert basin that was once a coastal tidal flat or marine lagoon. Over time, the sea retreated, leaving behind a treacherous crust of sand, silt, mud, and blinding white salt. Several of these are large coastal peninsulas, some of which stretch deep inland (into the Singe and Scorch, even so far as the Charr).

Salina: Dry lake beds in an arid lowland where saltwater evaporated, leaving massive, compressed salt flats mixed with desert sand.

All of these regions are inhabited, although not all of these regions are considered 'habitable' by most 'normal' people. We simply do not know what size population exists. Most population density is crowded into the few areas where water is available. 

There are four grades of water - 'Sweet' is top-tier, luxury water, with entendres and connotations. 'Fresh' or 'Clear' water is the general common type. 'Brack' or 'Bitter' also called 'slave-water' or 'animal'. 'Dreg' or 'Dregs' is sub-par below human and animal use, though it has saved lives so its dirtiness is also associatively reflective of poison, risk and miracle. Filtration is commonly used.  Desert continent social caste system directly reflects the water gradient system. 

Unique Slave Maker NPC's

©2026 Ordo Octopia. All Rights Reserved. 

Blogging Vs Selling

Why I Put My Game Designs on a Blog Instead of Selling Them

People sometimes ask why I publish my game designs as blog posts rather than packaging them up and selling them "properly".

I did try the commercial route. I released a product on DriveThruRPG. I even paid the British Trademark Office so I could put the ® symbol on it instead of a plain ©, thinking that would give me stronger proof of ownership if anyone ever challenged me. After my product was already out, someone else released a product in the same field under the exact same title. I contacted him. He told me to fuck off and blocked me from all social media channels. I had no postal address for him, so taking it to court was impossible. I complained to the platforms selling his work. They essentially shrugged and said they would only act if a judge ruled it was intellectual property infringement. He went on to make podcasts and YouTube videos about his product using that same title. In the end I stopped chasing it. The evidence is still online for anyone who cares to look. Life’s too short.

That episode taught me a few useful things.

People will take what they want if they think it’s good. That should not stop you from making the work. Treat it as confirmation that the idea had value. I also learned that most people will only pay for something if it is either dirt cheap or conspicuously expensive. Anything in the middle struggles. Charging money reduces the number of people who ever see the work. Releasing it free on a blog, by contrast, puts a clear date stamp on it and gets it in front of far more eyes. Somewhere among those eyes is the person who will actually play it, talk about it, reblog it, or make a video. That is how momentum builds.

The point of these games is to be played. Fun is the product. The odds of a solo indie designer making meaningful money from a single release are low. So I made a deliberate choice: put everything on the blog. If I later turn a set of posts into a clean PDF with decent layout and some illustrations, perhaps even as a hardcopy print-on-demand, maybe people will pay for the convenience. Until then I would rather be a designer people have actually heard of than an expensive nobody sitting on work no one has seen.

What I call game design has two parts: the rules and the worlds. The worlds are what I love. Good mechanics should serve the world. They should flavour it, reinforce its logic, and stay out of the way of the story the players are telling together. The longer I do this, the more I want the rules to be simple. Mechanics that interrupt storytelling are a waste of everyone’s time. Overcomplicated systems that take hours to learn before you can even start playing are a particular nightmare, and it is surprisingly easy to fall into that trap when you are deep in the design process.

So the blog remains the main channel. It is fast, date-stamped, visible, and free of the usual commercial friction. The work gets out. People can use it. And if something later proves worth packaging more carefully, the foundation is already there.

VILE the Black Orb

 

VILE the Black Orb

The Black Orb is an enigmatic dimension tied to the spiritual mechanics of Geas distribution. It is a manifestation of the Void, given form and function by the web of Confessional Shrines scattered across the swamp world. A timeless, spaceless construct, it exists as a liminal space between life, death, and rebirth.

Role of the Black Orb

1. A Geas Spirit’s Penance
   • Upon death, individuals who accept this unique Geas are bound to the Black Orb, becoming Geas Spirits. Their task is to relay Geas to the living.
   • The number of Geas they must distribute corresponds to their Graft Rating (a measure of their strength, determination, and karmic load).
   • Only after fulfilling this task can the spirit relinquish all attachments and dissolve into rebirth.
2. Confessional Booths
   • The Black Orb connects to the physical world through the Confessional Booths—windows into the Orb scattered across villages, towers, and shrines.
   • These booths serve as portals through which Geas Spirits deliver their tasks to the living.
   • Villagers believe the booths channel the direct wisdom of the Void, guiding both spirits and mortals toward karmic balance.
3. The Path to Rebirth
   • Once a Geas Spirit has completed its tally of Geas, it is no longer bound to the Orb.
   • A portal of incarnation opens, guiding the spirit to its next life based on its accumulated karmic progress.
   • The more balanced and fulfilled the spirit's work, the more favorable its next incarnation.

Geas Spirits and Their Tasks

1. Instruction from the Orb
   • When approaching a Confessional Window from within the Black Orb, the Geas Spirit receives the words it must relay. This instruction is experienced as an unshakable knowing or a whispered command from the Void itself.
   • These tasks are always aligned with the spiritual and practical needs of the recipient, balancing karma.
2. Traversal Between Dimensions
   • A Geas Spirit can enter the physical world through any Confessional Shrine.
   • They always know which window leads to the person most in need of their assigned Geas.
3. Communication Within the Orb
   • Inside the Black Orb, Geas Spirits communicate freely. This interaction allows them to exchange wisdom, seek advice, or share insights about their tasks.
   • This shared consciousness fosters a collective understanding of karma and spiritual balance.

The Experience of the Black Orb

• The Void Made Visible:
  The Black Orb is an expanse of shifting darkness, punctuated by glowing Confessional Windows, each opening to a specific shrine in the physical world. These windows emit faint, spectral light, illuminating the spirits’ path.
• Timelessness:
  Geas Spirits perceive time differently within the Orb. They feel neither the weight of eternity nor the pressure of urgency. Instead, they exist in a state of fluid awareness, focusing entirely on their task.
• A Path of Redemption:
  The Black Orb is both a prison and a sanctuary. For some spirits, it is a place of penance; for others, it is an opportunity to progress toward enlightenment and rebirth.

Narrative Hooks and Consequences

1. Becoming a Geas Spirit:
   • Characters may encounter the opportunity to accept this unique Geas as part of their spiritual journey.
   • This decision could serve as a climactic moment in their story, forever altering their trajectory.
2. Encounters with Geas Spirits:
   • Travelers may witness spirits materializing from Confessional Shrines to deliver messages.
   • These encounters can be profound, cryptic, or even unnerving, depending on the spirit’s tone and task.
3. Interaction with the Orb:
   • Characters skilled in Shadow or Void magic may attempt to interact directly with the Black Orb.
   • This could allow for unique storylines involving spiritual espionage, karmic manipulation, or direct confrontation with the Void’s will.
4. Rogue Geas Spirits:
   • Not all spirits are compliant. Some rebel against their task, attempting to flee the Orb or manipulate their assigned Geas for personal gain.
   • These rogue spirits could become adversaries or allies, depending on their motives.

Themes of the Black Orb

The Black Orb emphasizes themes of:

• Redemption: Completing the Geas tally allows a spirit to move toward rebirth.
• Fate and Free Will: While bound to a task, the spirit retains its personality and perspective, influencing how it delivers its Geas.
• Mystery and Cosmic Order: The Orb exists as an enigma, a manifestation of the Void’s inexplicable design.

In the swamp world of VILE, the Black Orb stands as a metaphysical anchor, intertwining the living and the dead in a perpetual dance of karma and consequence.

V I L E

VILE trolls

 

VILE Trolls : The Degenerate Demi-Humans of the Swamps

Trolls are degenerate creatures that embody the filth and hostility of the swamp. They are pallid, malformed humanoids with twisted features, lank greasy hair, warty skin, and gnarled, clawed hands and feet adapted for life in the mire. Their webbed extremities allow them to move surprisingly well through the muck, though their gangly limbs make them awkward on dry land. Trolls are inherently cruel, malicious, and obsessive, driven more by base instincts than any semblance of higher intelligence.

Behavior and Lifestyle

• Solitary or Small Groups: Most trolls are solitary creatures, but smaller ones often band together in loose, chaotic groups for survival or to bully others.
• Lack of Culture: Trolls have no crafts, no fire, no tools, and no clothing. They lack the ability to create or innovate, relying solely on brute strength and cruelty to sustain themselves.
• Territorial Raiders: Trolls are opportunists, often taking over abandoned towers or islands for shelter. They occasionally raid human settlements, though they are typically deterred by organized resistance.
• Resting Habits: Trolls sleep standing in the mire, hidden in dense swamp vegetation, or perched awkwardly in trees.

Strengths and Weaknesses

• Strengths: Trolls are physically strong, with claws that can rend wood and flesh. They are incredibly resilient, seemingly impervious to minor injuries. Their webbed feet allow them to traverse the swamp with ease.
• Weaknesses: Trolls are unintelligent and predictable, easily outwitted by clever opponents. They have a fear of fire and strong, sharp-smelling substances like swamp resin, which can be used to drive them away.

Scenario Briefs

1. Encounter with a Lone Wandering Troll

A lone troll, named Grunkle, prowls the swamp near a narrow path used by villagers. It’s scrawny but wiry, with sharp claws and an insatiable appetite for cruelty.

• Setup: The characters come across a makeshift barrier of brambles and swamp weed strung across their path. Grunkle lurks nearby, waiting to ambush anyone who attempts to cross.
• Details:
  • Tactics: Grunkle uses the swamp terrain to its advantage, attacking with hit-and-run tactics and retreating into the water when injured.
  • Resolution: Grunkle can be driven away with fire or tricked into stepping into a boggy sinkhole. Its crude "treasures" (bones, shiny stones, bits of resin) can be found in a hidden cache nearby.

2. Encounter with a Group of Small Trolls

A band of five small trolls has taken up residence near a swamp crossroads. These trolls, led by Warty, have been harassing travelers, stealing food, and blocking passage.

• Setup: The group is discovered throwing rocks and jeering at a stranded skiff, its occupants trapped on a sandbar.
• Details:
  • Tactics:
    • The trolls work as a chaotic pack, swarming their victims but prone to infighting.
    • They throw mud and swamp debris to distract, then lunge with claws and teeth.
  • Complications: The trolls scatter if one of their number is killed, but they may regroup later.
  • Resolution: The characters can fight, scare them off, or bribe them with food. Their lair, a hollowed-out tree, contains stolen goods.

3. Encounter with a Large Troll in a Ruined Tower

A massive troll named Groth has claimed an island with a ruined tower. It has been terrorizing the area, stealing livestock from nearby villages and attacking anyone who ventures near.

• Setup: Villagers hire the characters to drive off Groth. The island is surrounded by treacherous swamp waters, and Groth has reinforced the tower with debris and muck.
• Details:
  • Groth's Strengths: Groth is twice the size of an average troll, with immense strength and crude intelligence. It uses large branches as clubs and has turned the tower's broken walls into a crude lair.
  • Tactics:
    • Groth defends its territory fiercely, hurling debris from the tower before engaging in close combat.
    • The tower itself is precarious, with weak floors and collapsing walls.
  • Complications: The swamp around the island is full of pitfalls and may contain smaller trolls or swamp creatures.
  • Resolution: Groth can be killed or driven off, but the battle may destroy parts of the tower. Hidden in the rubble is a mysterious sigil carved into stone, hinting at the tower's original purpose.

These scenarios showcase the unpredictability and menace of trolls in the swamp world, offering a variety of challenges for players to navigate.

Troll Personality and Behavior 3D6 Chart

Roll 3D6 to quickly generate a Troll's personality and behavior traits. The result corresponds to one of the following combinations of traits.

Usage

1. Roll 3D6.
2. Match the result to the chart to determine the Troll's dominant personality or behavior trait.
3. For added complexity, roll additional traits (up to 3 total) and combine them for a more dynamic troll.

This system is ideal for quickly defining Troll NPCs or creating random encounters with colorful, chaotic personalities.

3 - Cruel Sadist

• Takes joy in causing pain or discomfort.
• Exploits others' weaknesses for fun.

4 - Cowardly Saboteur

• Strikes from the shadows, avoiding confrontation.
• Refuses responsibility for harmful actions.

5 - Petty Squabbler

• Picks unnecessary fights over trivial matters.
• Focuses on being “right” rather than resolving issues.

6 - Blame-Shifter

• Avoids accountability by deflecting blame onto others.
• Dodges consequences with lies or excuses.

7 - Envious Underminer

• Resents others’ success or happiness.
• Undermines or diminishes achievements out of jealousy.

8 - Shadow Lurker

• Hides identity to evade consequences.
• Uses disguises or false personas to deceive others.

9 - Sarcastic Cynic

• Undermines others with cutting sarcasm.
• Masks insults or hostility as humor.

10 - Conflict Escalator

• Thrives on intensifying arguments or disputes.
• Stirs the pot to maximize chaos and division.

11 - Manipulative Deceiver

• Twists words and situations to confuse or control others.
• Exploits trust and vulnerabilities for personal gain.

12 - Thrill-Seeker

• Trolls for excitement, entertainment, or boredom.
• Treats serious situations as games or jokes.

13 - Reactionary Hater

• Responds with blind hostility to new ideas or challenges.
• Fueled by gut-level disdain for change or differing views.

14 - Greedy Opportunist

• Exploits situations or people for personal gain.
• Obsessed with acquiring resources, power, or wealth.

15 - Dominance Player

• Uses intimidation, coercion, or control to assert power.
• Restricts others’ choices to maintain superiority.

16 - Competitive Braggart

• Obsessed with one-upping others in all situations.
• Boasts or dismisses others’ successes to appear superior.

17 - Malicious Grudge-Holder

• Pursues relentless revenge, regardless of scale or consequence.
• Harbors grudges for extended periods to fuel unnecessary conflict.

18 - Provocateur

• Enjoys stirring conflict and shocking others.
• Pushes boundaries to provoke strong reactions.

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