More Boons and Buffs: There's nothing quite like getting a big +# on some roll you do, so I've elected to add tons of bonuses that the players can add in certain situations. The idea started by having a pantheon of gods that grant you temporary stat boosts for a day or so if you pray to them, but continued to having common statboost potions and whatnot. Magic items are also more common, though in most cases I don't use the ones right from the books.

New Damage Types: I don't know where the idea came from, but at some point I decided to screw over the regular damage types and throw in some new ones. They're a bit rarer in terms of regular combat, but come with some added perks...

• Sapping: Damage that directly weakens the target. -1 Str.
• Leeching: Damage that slows the target. -1 Dex.
• Draining: Damage that reduces the target's vitality. -1 Con.
• Psychic: BRAIN. -1 Int
• Blocking: Anti-chakra. -1 Wis
• E m o t i o n a l : -1 Cha

Dwarven Vending Machine: I already mentioned this up above, but I recently backed a kickstarter for a brand-new D&D campaign book inspired by Ghibli and Zelda, which is like... awesome. And there are rules in there for magical vending machines! Obviously I couldn't wait and just took it upon myself to make some for this campaign early...

• Spoiler

  Insert 1 Silver Coin (CP are the base currency now instead of GP, because I think the mini coins don't get enough love) to roll 1d12 on the table below:

  • 1-8: Common. Roll 1d4
    • 1 - Antidote. Cures poisoning and other status effects
    • 2 - Potion of Speed I. +5 ft speed for 1 turn
    • 3 - Potion of Healing I. Heals 1d6 HP
    • 4 - Potion of Resistance (1 hour) - Roll 1d6
      • 1 - Sapping
      • 2 - Leeching
      • 3 - Draining
      • 4 - Psychic
      • 5 - Blocking
      • 6 - Emotional
  • 9-11: Uncommon. Roll 1d6
    • 1 - Potion of Advantage (single-use)
    • 2 - Potion of Resistance (1 hour) - Roll 1d8
      • Slashing
      • Bludgeoning
      • Piercing
      • Fire/Acid
      • Ice
      • Shock
      • Radiant
      • Necrotic
    • 3 - Potion of Buff (+2) - Roll 1d6 (for Stat)
    • 4 - Potion of Healing II - Heals 2d6 HP
    • 5 - Potion of Magic I - Grants a single-use 1st-level spell slot
    • 6 - Potion of Speed I - +10 ft speed for 1 turn
  • 12: Rare. Roll 1d4
    • Potion of Healing III - Heals 3d6 HP
    • Potion of Magic II - Grants a single-use 2nd-level spell slot
    • Potion of Speed III - +15 ft speed for 1 turn
    • Potion of Buff II (+3) - Roll 1d6 (for Stat)

   

   

  (I'll come up with a table for inserting Gold, Electrum (I made them decent), and Platinum coins later - for now they're broke poor, and haven't even seen any coins of that variety)

The Void: There are three players, each currently Level 1. In the past I've always overestimated how powerful certain monsters can be, so I put them up against a decent group of slightly overleveled baddies at the end of the current dungeon - surprise surprise, they get TPK'd! Right the heck away! So of course I scrounge through my brain for ideas as fast as humanly possible, then inform them of the following:

• "You appear in the Between, through an infinite black void. A voice speaks to you..."
• [Super Smash Bros. Brawl announcer voice]: CONTINUE???
• (They say "yes" ofc, because they're nerds like me)
• "A Reaper appears before you, a pad and pen in hand. 'Do you have any Souls to bargain with?'"
• (They're like "...?")
• "'Hm. Thought so. We'll put you back in on Easy mode, with a debt of 1 Soul each. Your warranty is 1 month, and we're taking a fragment of your essence as a down payment."

And then they reappear to defeat the (nerfed) boss - though each of them has to roll a 1d6, and reduces the corresponding Ability Score by 1.

Souls: So of course they immediately begin asking around about Souls this and Souls that to pay off their debt - after all, if they can't after a month, they will be claimed by the Reapers and put into Hell Internship. I spent a few hours between sessions designing a Soul and Debt system, which was introduced to them on accident when they accidentally murdered a talking sparrow's deadbeat husband, who - the sparrow, not the husband - taught them the following:

Using a Crystal Bottle (yes, I pretty much just stole this from Zelda), you can entrap a single Soul from a slain creature. However, not all Souls are created equal - in fact, most are quite squalid. Few Souls have the capability to stick around in a stable form after death, and when captured are generally in some state of fractured. How Whole they are determines their Quality, which comes in five tiers:

• Tier 1 - Broken Soul (1)
• Tier 2 - Weakened Soul (2)
• Tier 3 - Regular Soul (4)
• Tier 4 - Prime Soul (8)
• Tier 5 - Pure Soul (16)

Their debt is currently (16), which is equal to 1 Pure Soul or some combination of various others. The Sparrow Husband soul they captured was Tier 1, which wasn't partiularly helpful - and in fact they wound up dumping it out later in the hopes of getting a better one, even though they screwed up and didn't.

When a PC dies, they can choose to be revived (because lore reasons). Without a Soul to spend they get a Tier 0 revival, which reduces a random stat by 1 and sets their Warranty to 1 month. I do have a system for revivals of higher tiers providing stat boosts, but I might have that only be the case for if PCs have already paid their debt in full - otherwise, the Souls only work to prolong the Warranty.

The Walls: I should probably explain the lore of where they're at... it's a place called The Palace of One Million Doors, which is misleading. It's a megagigantic supercastle that spans over several continents, rising high into the sky and down far beneath the surface - between realms and time and space. Obviously it is The Place for adventurers to go, and works a treat for the shortform sessions we tend to run (I just throw them in some mini-setting, they do some hijinks, and after awhile we call it a day). Because of the mysterious nature of this place, I can feel free to throw whatever lore I want into it. In this case, I added a fellow called The Architect who controls the Walls of the the Palace through godlike spacebending powers - however, for some reason, he uses these powers to rent out little wall-based pocket realms to traveling merchants. You can pay tribute to The Architect to receive a personal Wallspace, but they also provide two services that reduce costs to stimulate the economy: they both provide several connected Wallspaces for a reduced price, granted to merchants and farmers. They are - respectively - the Wall Mart service and the Wall Greens service.

Insurance?: I had a character sheet prepared for a rival character since the beginning - a wizard lady called LiLi. She's a total cremhole and sucks to no end - but by the time they bumped into her, they were already remarkably well-equipped and beat the schnozz out of her pretty much right away. This was all part of the plan, of course, as a few minutes later some eldritch horror took control of her body and soul; basically, she went Super Saiyan. She TPK'd the party immediately, but because this one was scripted I added some :mystery: by having the Reapers inform the players that (for some reason) their Debt had been paid in full... how strange.

Anyway, they woke up on the last remnant a completely destroyed bridge hanging over the abyss, completely incapable of escaping by any regular means. I honestly didn't have a plan for them at this point - you know. BS and all. One of the players decided to grovel and pray to their patron god, which I of course responded to in character - that is, by a Customer Service helpline (and the Wii Shop theme for hold music!). By now it was just a back-and-forth of various character stuff, so I just did whatever felt right - which, in this case, meant bringing up Divine Insurance. The PCs obviously didn't have any of this, so they were placed in the god's debt instead.

But of course I had to write out the Divine Insurance Firms to have information on them in the future. Here they be:

• Big Brain Services: Provides hints and clues where necessary. Providers:
  • Dite, Goddess of Arcana
  • Anlein, God of Knowledge
  • Phyte, God of Forge
• Live, Long, & Prosper: Provides emergency healing and whatnot. Providers:
  • Etex, Goddess of Life (Live)
  • Lalix, God of Death (Long)
  • Methos, Goddess of Grave (Prosper)
• Nature Inc.: Provides various traveling assistances and whatnot. Providers:
  • Mutein, Goddess of Light
  • Ozan, God of Twilight
  • Tilan, God of Nature
  • Aher, Goddess of Order
  • Dynos, God of Peace
• Screw it; We ball: COMBAT. STUFF. Providers:
  • Kiand, Goddess of Tempest
  • Mynar, Goddess of War
  • Cottis, God of Trickery