I was thinking about encumbrance in the context of this fantastic post and was thinking that, while I love this level of quantum inventory, because streamlining inventory helps most games a lot, it detracts from the fun of “Ooh! I have this cool thing!” which I want more of.

I, like everyone else, am playing Tears of the Kingdom, and a perennial conversation is how to recreate the sense of cosy exploration there. The aspect of coziness that I focused on being easily adaptable is finding random and cool stuff en route to your destination. This, we can do.

Whenever you pass through a hex, you pick herbs or capture a small creature along the way. Roll 1d6 for the region you are passing through. Each region has two themes for herbs and creatures in them.

Themes

1. Lightning
2. Fire
3. Frost
4. Water
5. Light
6. Poison
7. Cloud
8. Confusion
9. Thorned
10. Weight
11. Sticky
12. Explosive

Combine these two with these effects to make your list for each region:

1. Resist or shield
2. Decrease or deprive
3. Increase or grow
4. Inflict or project
5. Fuse or bond
6. No regional effect, heal

Tweak this for any pre-existing regions you have of course, or use it to give a theme to a region you’re designing.

I rolled 6 (Poison) and 12 (Explosive) for my region, which gives me the impression of a volcanic swamp, bubbling mud and potent gasses. I rolled 3,3,4,4,5,6 for my effects. Oh, and I randomised herb and creature, but whatever.

Forage in Swayraks’ Swamp

1. Brimstone Shroom. Add to fire or explosive to increase its effect twofold.
2. Fanged blightmoth. When brewed, renders the imbiber venomous of tooth and claw.
3. Bombardier Puffball. Explodes in fireball when struck.
4. Grey flagweed. Poisonous when ingested.
5. Corrosive Pufferfish. When startled, explodes in a poison gas cloud. Can be attached to arrows.
6. Steambee Honey. Heals surface wounds as an ointment.

I added the condition here from Tears of the Kingdom that creatures need to be brewed into potions for effect. Let’s try for a second. You can guess this time.

Whetwood

1. Cloudflower. Burn to create a broad smokescreen.
2. Glue truffle. Eat to immediately spit out a cloud of adhesive gas.
3. Slippery whitegrub. Squeeze as toothpaste for a small amount of incredibly slippery paste.
4. Giant flatworm. Brew, and the i’m i ver grows suckers on all limbs, able to grip slippery or sheer surfaces.
5. Salvemoss. Heals internal wounds as a tea.
6. Graveweed. Suspends the body at the moment of death, to be healed at a later date.

Add it to your current procedure, a cosy travel layer.

Addition: Already there have been a number of suggestions and hacks to this. Sacha suggested adding a rarity layer on twitter, Long Goblin suggested a substance layer in the comments (see below), Marcia suggested loading it with wandering monsters to replicate the fact that you can’t forage under attack and to reduce rolls. Ktrey has written herb, tree, bird and fish generators, if you’re having naming troubles! I’ll continue to consider these perspectives and maybe update it as I go, but I’m so glad this idea is vibing with everyone so much!

28th June, 2023

Idle Cartulary