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Re: (TFT) New Campaign



Since this is the product of the Mnoren, or some other weird, inexplicable culture, you should have some of the products be rather bizarre.

Imagine if one of these machines was stocked with cans of Coke, the only source of it in of your fantasy world. A wealthy patron with a sweet tooth might send teams to try to make it to level 10 and bring his favorite beverage back. They'd be like those slaves who ran down from the mountains with snow so that Roman nobles could make slurpees. Player characters might be hired to do this. Imagine a dungeon with no coins, gems, or small valuable items left in it, full of caffeine junkie monsters intent on mugging the adventurers. The empty cans might be more valuable than platinum, since aluminum is an extremely rare metal in most fantasy worlds. The costliest jewelry would be made out of old pop cans.

Here's a cruel trick: have the players find a coin covered with writing they can't read, or an unusual gemstone that they can't identify. If someone puts it into a TOMS machine, the readout goes up...and up...and up... They just threw away something that's worth millions! There is no coin return, but they can have a really big pile of overpriced supplies...

--Scott Haley

On Sep 8, 2005, at 7:27 AM, Ty Beard wrote:

I thought I'd pass along an artifact that appears in some of my more outrageous dungeons:

The "TOMS" Machine

This is a 1 hex construct that is rectangular and about 6' tall, 3.5' wide and 3' deep. It is made of some kind of smooth, black, marble-like stone that seems impervious to normal blows (it would take at least 20 points of damage in a single strike to mar its surface). The sides and back are smooth and featureless. The front of the construct is dominated by a large (4' high, 2' wide) panel of transparent material, like glass but as strong as the black material.

Beside the panel are a number of blue jewels with glowing red runes on them. The runes are Elvish and are the numbers 1-20.

Below the panel is a 6" high x 2' wide transparent panel that can be pushed open. Nothing is in the recessed area behind it.

A vertical slot that is just wide enough to hold the largest coin is beside the panel. If a player inserts a coin into the slot, glowing runes appear above the slot that (in Elvish) define the value of the coin. As additional coins are inserted, the value increases accordingly.

Below the slot is a 4" square recessed section. If gems or small items are placed there, they will disappear and the runes will increase by their value. There is no button that will return the coins, gems or items.

Above the panel are large, glowing Runes that look like the word "TOMS" (I usually just draw it out and show it to the players). Through the transparent glass are racks of potions, minor small magic items, etc. Each item has a glowing rune below it from 1-20 and smaller glowing runes that indicate the price of the item in SP. This price is usually twice the book price.

If players insert money, gems or small items of sufficient value, then push the numbered jewel, the potion or item will fall down into the lower slot and can be retrieved.

Yes, it's a dungeon vending machine. No one has ever tried to rifle the TOMs machines in my dungeons, but if they did, I'd probably drop a Demon on them.

I usually have one on each level, with better stuff on the machines on lower levels.

The game advantage of these machines is that they give the players the ability to last longer in a dungeon. They also provide a handy way to get rid of all the treasure they find in the dungeon.

--Ty =====
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