Children of the Howl: Escape your Doomed City + 1d20 Trinket Table

I was walking with my girlfriend the other day when she related a story to me about her childhood. She mentioned about how when she was playing in her backyard, she found some flowers but there was no wall behind them, so she pushed through them to enter into a lush garden full of flowers, but it did not seem like this garden belonged to anyone. She never could find a house it was attached to and every time she went there no one else was around. This became her own secret retreat until she moved.

I was thrilled with the idea of discovering something like this as a child. Consider exploring places that must once have been inhabited, strangely abandoned, right next to your own backyard.

So this is my idea: Your city has been devastated. It was the jewel of the world so your father said with its high walls. People from around the world wanted to get in such that its tight metropolitan sprawl grew and became denser over time until buildings and people were packed together and no one was ever alone.

Things are different since the Howl. Some say it was a storm. Some say an earthquake. Others say it was nothing they had ever seen. Everyone can only remember the terrible noise which ripped through everything: a great unbearable Howl that drowned out the world. Since then the city has been mostly empty, compared to what it was, anyway. The narrow streets that snaked through alleyways, under arched bridges, down into tunnels, and back again, full of bustling people now stand empty. The grand boulevards have been flooded with treacherous waters. Dark shapes lie in wait beneath. Vines creep up buildings, cracking the stone, as nature reclaims its own. Things that have nothing to do with the natural world haunt the dark corners of this silent place.

You are youths who have survived the disaster, Children of the Howl. Your parents were taken from you in the utter chaos and now you are alone but for each other. You are trapped in by dangers on all sides with no one to care for you. Day by day food becomes harder to find and there is only one thing on all of your minds. You must escape. You must escape the city or perish here with the rest. But between you and your exit is an entire city full of unknown dangers, but there are also hidden gardens, empty temples, and silent palaces. Ther is surprising beauty amidst ruin and surprising evil in the desperate hearts of those that remain here.

This is no place for children. That is why you must escape.

 By ma- ko https://twitter.com/blurring_my_day/status/1057598836481318914?s=20

The Ruin Crawl:

This would be a game about crawling through the ruins of a devastated city. The city is an incredibly dense urban sprawl so buildings are packed in tight, such that the game would be tracked via a grid. Paths would be marked along the grid lines, though not along all of them because of ruin and poor urban planning, but a lot of progress can be made by cutting through the various buildings of the city.

Such a Crawl would probably track time differently than most games. Hours would be the optimal smallest unit of measurement, although I think that's probably unrealistic. Rather than the usual 10-minute Turn, I'd make a Turn last 1/3 of an Hour. That way, explore three different rooms, and an Hour has passed. I think that's a little more reasonable and easier to keep track of. This would be a days-long journey to escape the city so tracking time will be important.

Barter:

Gold is worthless in this city now. Any friendly denizens will trade things they need to survive. Food is scarce. Clean water is not a given. The only way to get what you want without violence, theft, or trickery is trade.

XP Through Items of Interest:

How do we encourage exploration without gold? Well, certain objects are objects of interest. Food and water are primary trade goods, but magical objects, objects of cultural value, objects of beauty, objects that tell the story of the people that used to live here, these give XP.

At the end of a session, count up each Item of Interest the PCs have found even if they didn't keep them and give 1 XP for each 1.

For example:

1d20 Items of Interest:

1. a gold brooch in the shape of a bee with a citrine in the middle
2. a love letter written with exquisite calligraphy
3. an exotic tamed bird with shimmering blue and gold plumage and curved beak
4. a black flower with opalescent petals smelling of treated oak
5. mahogany prayer beads each carved into the shape of a face with a different emotion
6. a lemon-scented handkerchief with the initials PV sowed into it with silver thread
7. a hand-sized obsidian mirror which only reflects invisible creatures
8. a sorrowful mask made of bluish jade
9. an elegantly crafted chess piece (a rook) carved from a single dark amethyst. The bottom is emblazoned with the mark of Elmwood and Sons Gem Carvers.
10. white marble dentures with gold wire and hinges
11. a false eye made of sapphire
12. a brooch with a woman's face surrounded by lilies, studded with white quartzes
13. foxskin gloves emblazoned with a grapevine design about the wrist
14. a bag of marbles, each has a tiny porcelain figure of a dancing fairy within
15. brass multi-lensed spectacles. The right combination of lenses reveals magical auras.
16. a porcelain raven mask. Shriveled up rosemary and thyme is stuffed in the beak
17. a brass censor adorned with the image of a saint bearing a lantern and 1d4 blocks of incense
18. an exquisitely bound red tome entitled The Red Book of Rhydurch emblazoned with gold leaf
19. a baby blue cloak with white rabbit-fur lining with an electrum clasp in the shape of a stern face
20. A worn tin soldier. MK is written in a childish hand on his foot.

Character Creation:

Assign these values (3, 2, 1, 0) to the following stats: Might, Mind, Dexterity, Spirit

Assign Checks for each Stat: A Check is 18 - Stat. (Ex: if your Might was 3, your Might Check is 15. You need to roll 15 or higher to succeed on a Check)

Roll your Starting Life (HP): 1d6+Might

Assign your Base Defense: 9+Dexterity

Choose one of the following Starting Class:

• The Tough: +1 Might, +1d4 Life, +1 Threat, A Makeshift Weapon (1d6)
• The Sneak: +1 Dexterity, +2 Hide, A Slingshot (1d4, 30ft Range), 1 Supply of Stones
• The Mage: +1 Spirit, +1 Magic, A Random Charm
• The Tinkerer: +1 Mind, A Book of Engineering, A Toolbox, 1 Supply of Scrap

Skills like Hide subtract from your Check. (Ex: if your Dex Check is 16, and you have a Hide of 1, your Hide Check is 15.)

Magic is a resource. You must spend a point of Magic to use a Charm. Magic recharges one point per night's rest. Everyone starts with 0 Magic unless stated otherwise.

A Charm is a magical item which holds a minor magical ability. Each Charm takes up an Item Slot and can be used by spending a point of Magic. True spells are too advanced for children to learn. Some Charms also have Passive bonuses that work so long as the Charm is on your person.

Threat is a number that determines which character an enemy will attack all things being equal. For instance, if two characters are within melee of a creature and one has 2 Threat and the other has 1, the enemy will attack the character with 2 Threat. A Character can increase their Threat for specific creatures by performing actions to enrage them, lure them, or distract them. This increases your Threat to that specific enemy by 2. If there is some doubt of the efficacy of the action taken, resolve it with a Spirit Check.

Supply: Each Supply takes up a single Item Slot. Most collections of items, i.e. a bag of marbles, a ration of food, a skin of water, come as 1 Supply, though some may take up more. A Supply can be used three times before it is used up. Each Supply of Food or Water is used up once per day so long as the holder is eating or drinking. Ammunition is used once after every combat encounter where that ammunition is used.

Hunger, Thirst, and Exhaustion: For each day you don't eat, drink, or sleep you lose 1 max Life. All Life lost this way restores 1 point per day you have resumed eating, drinking, and sleeping. Life lost this way does not immediately kill you, if you would die due to this Life loss, instead you take -2 to all rolls. If you spend another day without eating, drinking, or resting you die.

Scrap: Scrap is a shorthand for scrap metal and pieces of machinery that might be shaped into simple machines so long as you know how.

Books: Each book can give knowledge three times about its related subject matter. So long as you have the book on hand, you keep the knowledge from it. For instance, a Book about Engineering could teach you how to make three different machines. A Book about Monsters could tell you useful information about three different kinds of monsters. A Book about Alchemy could teach you to make three potions. Of course in all instances, you will require the proper tools, ingredients, and time.

You start with one Supply of Food, one Supply of Water and whatever you get from your starting equipment and class. Your starting equipment is defined by what your parents did for work. Of course, feel free to make the parentage of your character whatever you wish: simply roll twice to determine your starting inventory.

1d12 Parental Professions:

1. Absent: You have become physically tougher in an effort to avoid the emotional pain of abandonment: +1 Might. If you roll this twice you were orphaned: +1 Might and you can choose 2 of the following: A Handmade Shiv (1d4), Lockpicks, 50ft of Rope, or A Charm of the Meek (Creatures that see you must make a Mind Check or consider you beneath notice for 1 Hour unless you take aggressive action, Passive: -1 Threat)
2. Cook: You have crafted pots and pans together into a makeshift armor, giving +2 Defense. You also have one Supply of Bread. If you roll this twice, you also get a Wacking Pan (1d6) and a Supply of Scrap.
3. Butcher: You have a Butcher's Knife (1d6) and a Book on Butchery. If you roll this twice you also have a Tenderizing Mallet (1d6) and a Supply of Raw Meat.
4. Alchemist: You have a (Roll 1d4 twice) 1: Potion of Healing (1d6+1), 2: Potion of Troll Strength (+3 Might), 3: An Exploding Potion of Inky Cloud (Covers a 60ft radius in a pitch-black cloud for 2d6 rounds), 4: Potion of Unstable Polymorph (Transform into a random animal for 1 Hour), and a Book of Alchemy. If you roll this twice you have 1 additional random potion and Alchemical Tools.
5. Hedgemage: You have a (Roll 1d4) Charm of the Stranger (For 1 Hour, the memory of your existence leaves the brains of all that see you once they no longer see you unless you take aggressive or excessively memorable action unless they succeed at a Mind Check, Passive: -1 Threat), Charm of Finding (A candle flame points you directly to an object or person of your desire which you can name and of which you have a piece or a thing belonging to them, Passive: +1 to Ranged Attacks), Charm of the Unseen (Bury this Charm with a buried object or stockpile and permanently embue it with a point of Magic. No one can ever find the buried object or stockpile unless they make a Mind check, Passive: +1 Hide.), Charm of Warding (Unnatural creatures must make a Mind Save or be prevented from approaching within 10ft of this Charm for 1d4 rounds, Passive: +1 Defense against Melee Attacks from Unnatural Creatures). If you roll this twice roll for another Charm.
6. Mechanist: You have a Book of Engineering and 1 Supply of Scrap. If you roll this twice, you have a Wrench (1d4) and another Scrap.
7. Librarian: You have three books (Roll 1d6 three times) 1: A Book of Engineering, 2: A Book about Monsters, 3: A Book about Butchery, 4: A Book of Alchemy, 5: A Book of Charms, 6: A Book of Places. If you roll this twice, roll thrice more.
8. Soldier: You have a Soldier's Helmet (+1 Defense) and a Shortsword (1d6). If you roll this twice you get a Buckler (+1 Defense) and a Crossbow (1d6, 100ft Range, Action to Reload), and 1 Supply of Bolts.
9. Hunter: You have a Shortbow (1d6), 1 Supply of Arrows, and a Hunter's Cloak (+1 Hide). If you roll this twice, you get a Supply of Meat and a Book of Traps.
10. Priest: You have a Charm of Warding (Unnatural creatures must make a Mind Save or be prevented from approaching within 10ft of this Charm for 1d4 rounds, Passive: +1 Defense against Melee Attacks from Unnatural Creatures), if you roll this twice you also get a set of Writing Tools and a Book of Religion.
11. Circus Performer: You have a Trained Monkey and a Whip (1d4, 10ft Range). If you roll this twice, you also have a Colorful Patchwork Cloak (+1 Threat) and a Set of Juggling Balls.
12. Thief: You have a Grappling Hook and Thief Tools. If you roll this twice you get a Dagger (1d4), and a Burglar's Cloak (+1 Hide).

Advancement through Storytelling: 

Each time you gather around a fire before a night's rest, you can share stories. Whenever you spend XP you must relate a memory from before the Howl a take on a post-Howl event or a fictional tale perhaps told to you by your parents that relates to how you became stronger or why you desire to become stronger in the desired area.

• 2 XP for 1d4 more Life. This costs 4XP after 10 Life.
• 2 XP for +1 Magic. You cannot advance Magic with XP after 5 Magic. Items in the world can grant Magic.
• It costs XP equal to the new amount of the desired Stat or Skill. You can only advance 1 Point at a time. Checks change with Stat. Ex: If you have 3 Might and want 4 Might, you have to spend 4 XP. You could not go from 3 Might to 5 Might in one Advancement.

Some ideas about what play would look like/Hook-type-things:

• The party begins at a building they have turned into a base. They are all children who lived on the same street and knew each other before the Howl. They are yet to look much beyond their starting area, surviving off the rainwater collecting in a basin. Food is running low. Through a window, they can see vines and greenery creeping over a large hole in an adjacent building.
• As the party roots through a wax museum, they hear the floor above them creeping under the weight of heavy footfalls.
• During the night, the party awakens to see bright azure light coming from a tower overlooking the Stanger's Quarter. Who has stayed behind in the city and why?
• After many days of going without food, a great golden salamander coils around the base of a peach tree.
• A party member's father has been trapped in a cage by a Howl-maddened Zookeeper. 
• Old Lady Hagmoor was always a bit off but the Howl has made her downright fishy (Scaley skin and yellow eyes included). She has fish that she has caught with her new skills and bits and pieces of useful items she has scavenged. She is willing to trade for pretty things: dresses and jewelry and the like.