D&D 5e

District Invasion

David Skelector D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, Monsters, Roleplaying Game, RPG, Streets&Turmoil, world-building

As if the numerous troublesome gangs weren’t enough, outside parties often invite themselves to the woe of the inhabitants.

Gargoyles from the Folly

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There’s many clutches of gargoyles living among the Folly’s dizzying heights. They’re very territorial and constantly at each other’s throats. They mostly keep to their high above ground perches but recently, the Covellites gargoyles, under pressure by an alliance of Realgars and Pyrites, have started making forays into the Harlequin.

Thrill-seeking Enclave Elves

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Boredom can be a powerful driving force, suffer a couple of centuries of it and I’m sure you’ll agree. A manifestation of this is expressed by those elven interlopers going for a stroll in the « bad neighborhood ». Most of the time, such a group is escorted by hired arms and the elves themselves are comically clad with antique (and mostly useless) armors.  Less often, these Enclave Elves want to really test themselves and get some action. Some are actually quite good at it.

Kwaggers from… the Kwag

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Be they of any races, kwaggers are kwaggers. Crazy, violent slum people who don’t even seem to want to better their lives. But then, the Kwag is literally a nexus of bad energy. Folks who live there don’t stay sane very long. Sometimes things spill out, a gate gets destroyed or a levy-bridge breaks, slamming down, and the Kwaggers swarm over, howling and clawing like madmen.

Notches on a Blood Cudgel

David Skelector D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, jeux de rôles, Roleplaying Game, RPG, Streets&Turmoil

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It’s a bit contrived but I was searching for a way to upgrade damage output for weapons that normally do 1d4 (for my beat’em up setting), as a way to balance weapon-using classes with the monk class (1).

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Sometimes called blood cudgels or shillelaghs, these are clubs made from a bloodroot tree and specially imbued  with magical potency but oddly, you’ve got to « prove » yourself by beating the crap out of people. Many people…

30 + 1d20 notches required

  • You make the roll when you first acquire a blood cudgel.
  • a K.O, dropping a foe to 0 hp counts as a Kill.
  • You cannot « upgrade » a blood cudgel which have been notched by someone else.

Once you have enough notches, the blood cudgel counts as a magical weapon and its damage dice is one higher (d4 to d6 or d6 to d8 with this feat).

In addition, a blood cudgel may potentially gain special damage if it is used to kill monsters (i.e gaining fire damage if it kills an efreet). At the DM’s discretion.

A blood cudgel costs 80 gp, is a simple weapon and is not widely available.

  1. As Dubs kept remembering me, annoyingly but… he was right!

 

Class variant: Flâneur

David Skelector Books, D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, Roleplaying Game, RPG, Streets&Turmoil , ,

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I won’t mess with the mechanics of the rogue as it is one of the few character classes that is perfectly okay within my Streets & Turmoil D&D setting but here is a little more flavour coming along with the flâneur. As always, the players will be free to do as they wish (almost) but it seems to me that a rogue character could well be played with these lines in mind:

The flâneur belongs to the same social and moral universe as the spy, agent de sûreté and, somewhat later, the detective. Like them, he strives to be both all-seeing and invisible (though, just as spies were commonly spied upon, so too the flâneur is himself not infrequently the object of physionomie) and, no less than Vidocq or Hugo’s Javert, he is a Protean figure capable of assuming a variety of disguises in order to pursue his scopophiliac passion undetected.

extract from The flaneur and his city by Richard D.E. Burton

The flâneur is a keen observer, so much so that using physionomie knowledge he can, from the dress, gait, etc. in a mere moment gain, like Burton says: « god-like power-through knowledge over the Other. »

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Well I think that would help explain a few things about the features of the rogue class (versatility, skills strength, backstab ability and so on).

Magic Items – Mean Streets

David Skelector D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, Roleplaying Game, RPG, Streets&Turmoil

So what kind of magic items can you find in a « rough-and-tumble fantasy setting »? Here’s a few samples:

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Brass Knuckles of Button-Seeking

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Weapon, rare

Right on the button. Sleep well!

You gain + 1 to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. In addition, the chance to score a critical hit is increased (19-20).

Chain of Inescapability

Weapon, rare (requires attunement)

You gain + 1 to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. An opponent hit by this weapon cannot choose the disengage action nor can it use any kind of extradimensional movement as long as it is faced by the owner of the Chain.

Fist Cane of Brutality

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Weapon, uncommon

When you roll a 20 on your attack roll with this weapon, the target takes an extra d12 of force damage.

Lupin’s Briefs of Heroics

Wondrous Item, legendary (requires attunement by a bard)

Antique underwear of a Hero long gone. How the hell did you get them?!

While you wear these legendary briefs you can use bardic inspiration on yourself.

Hand Wraps of Grasping

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Weapon, rare

You have advantage on grapple checks when you’re the attacker. Doing so, you have a reach of 10′. In addition, you have advantage on Strength (athletics) checks that involves climbing.

Hat of  the Watchful Eye

Wondrous Item, uncommon

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You need to watch your back on these streets.

The hat have three charges. You can spend a charge to gain advantage on Wisdom (perception) checks for 10 minutes. The hat regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn.

Slimy Padded Vest of Ooze Summoning

Armor (Padded), very rare (requires attunement)

If you’re weird enough to wear this disgusting vest, you gain a + 2 bonus to AC.  In addition, you have advantage on Strength (athletics or acrobatics) checks to escape a grapple.

Each time you have lost 22 hit points (cumulative) while wearing this armor, you can use an action to summon a gray ooze that will be under your control until next dawn (and then liquefy). You can have up to 4 oozes under your control at the same time.

Hand Wraps of the Grave

Weapon, very rare

A ghoul stole it from a corpse. A buried one I mean.

You gain + 1 to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. In addition, each time you hit the target takes another 1d4 cold damage.

This item have 5 charges. You can spend one charge to cast Chill Touch or more than one to increase its damage. To regain expanded charges you must put the Wraps of the Grave on a corpse for one night.

Brass Knuckles of Combos

Weapon, rare

When you make an attack roll on a target you already hit you gain a + 1 to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. This is cumulative up to + 4. If you attack another target this benefit is lost. After a +4 bonus the combo is stopped and it begins anew.

Paldrons of Shoving

Wondrous Item, uncommon (requires medium armor proficiency)

Gives the wearer + 1 AC and advantage on Strength checks (athletics) for shoving an adversary.

Gloves of the Gecko

Wondrous Item, rare (requires attunement)

While wearing the Gloves of the Gecko, you can climb (without a check) any surface (even upside down) at a rate of 20′ maximum.

Wand of Smelling Salts

Weapon (staff), rare

The Wand of Smelling Salts has 3 charges. As a reaction, you can use 1 charge to remove a stunned conditon on yourself or someone within 5′ of you.

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The Furniture Mishandling Club

David Skelector D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, Roleplaying Game, RPG, Streets&Turmoil

ec79677462d55591972cc5f6776ce7f3Les bahuts, monsieur, répliqua l’architecte, les bahuts, meuble obligé d’une maison moyen âge ! Le moyen âge et le bahut sont inséparables ! Le bahut, madame, ajouta-t-il, en se tournant vers Malvina, le bahut, c’est le coffre au linge, l’armoire à glace, la commode, le secrétaire de nos aïeux. Le bahut et le prie-dieu, voilà la grande ébénisterie du xive siècle ! — (Louis Reybaud, Jérôme Paturot, 1842)

The members of the Furniture Mishandling Club (FMC) are known far and wide for their love of barricade building and their signature magic ability to cast animate object on, well, any furniture they can put their hands on. They even create furniture golems!

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Situation

The FMC loves gratuitous mayhem but it has also a knack for extortion (great many houses have been emptied by its operators). They now have under their control three sub-precincts, delimited with their infamous, almost impassable barricades.

One such particularly impressive wall of furniture is purely defensive. The FMC blocked the gate leading to the Kwag Slums, to prevent an invasion on their eastern side by those crazy Kwaggers.

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Gang Activities

  • extortion
  • intimidation
  • thieving
  • beating
  • reselling
  • tax to enter territory
  • cut from woodcraft’s guild

Most Noteworthy members

King Bahut (leader, dwarf)

The grizzled leader of the FMC was a member of the Resistance who fought against the Third Tyrant a century ago. It seems like he developped an obsession of barricades from this bloody era. He’s quite the brilliant guerilla tactician but he’s not entirely sane. He’s often found sitting on a gigantic, damaged throne that moves around.

Master Stool (dwarf)

A dwarf martial artist, he still laugh like a devil when he succeeds in tripping an opponent over  an animated stool with an adroit push of his quarterstaff, even after so many times.

Chairman Lookup (goblin)

Almost always on top of a barricade, the so-called Chairman loves to throw things from above. Chairs, bricks, rocks, nets, dead rats; he always prepare a good stash of ammos. He has a monkey pet that have strange, red, evil-looking eyes.

Maatelaah, Queen (of the) Bed (hobgoblin female)

When she’s not expertly directing the building of yet another pile of furniture, « Queen » Maatelaah loves to terrorize the neighborhood with a bunch of thugs, snatching anything she wants, the animated bed following her dutifully serving as transport.

Captain Chiffonnier (human male)

The pedantic « Captain » Chiffonier has a much profitable business relation with the woodcrafting’ s guild. Taking away so much furniture from the people in the vicinity of the FMC also creates a need and such an unscrupulous fellow as Chiffonier wants what he thinks is his due.

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At a leisurely pace

David Skelector D&D 5e, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Homebrew, Roleplaying Game, RPG, Streets&Turmoil, world-building

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Yeah… Okay, maybe not like that but palanquins? Definitely.

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You’re someone important? That’s how you go around!

After all, what better way to display your status?

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Yep

If you can’t afford having your own palanquin and its carriers, rent one!

  • The Steadfast Twenty: the smoothest ride in town is offered by this group of indistinguishable bare-chested dwarves.
  • The Hobgoblin Stompers: Iron-booted, dressed in spiked leather armors, the Stompers get you through a crowd without even slowing.
  • Mother Sigma’s Crew: If you don’t mind the putrid odor, this necromancer lady and her tireless minions offers the cheapest ride in town.
  • The Golden Cushion: The Broken Wheel gang have acquired these most extravagant of palanquins, previously owned by the Puulchesera elves before they were forced out of the Enclave with their evil curse & stuff. Now the Halflings mafiosi have set a small business with various carriers indebted to them operating the gilded, heavy palanquins.

Will the PCs ever pay for  a palanquin ride? Doubtful, because:

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