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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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