Back to the Specialized Calamity Tables
a) Some people have noted my fire table wasn't sufficiently deadly. To a certain extent, that was intentional -- I really didn't want "15:Take 2d6 damage. 16:Take 3d6 Damage. 17:Take 4d6 Damage" ad infinitum. In the Lizardverse, magic is chaotic, and a lot more things can happen to you than just getting burnt. YMMV.
b) This table has only a handful of items which cause damage to the mage. In the Lizardverse, necromancy is fundementally self-corrupting -- the more you tamper with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, the more your mind and body are corrupted. Necromancers don't live in isolated towers on top of the Barren Peaks beyond the Dark Forest across the River Of Blood because the rents are cheap. More than one or two rolls on this table, and a little bit of bad luck, and the character might become quite unplayable -- GM's might want to tone down the large number of 'permanent' effects.
(Some of this table was inspired by dim memories of Warhammer FRP, which also had the 'magic makes you go nuts' feature. I've got to see about digging that up and converting some of the ideas in there to GURPS)
| 3,4 | If the mage has been damaged, a single point of damage is instantly healed. |
|---|---|
| 5-9 | A faint, etherial moan is heard -- nothing else *seems* to happen. |
| 10 | Deathstench -- the Mage begins to reek of rot and corruption. The effect cannot be masked, except perhaps by some form of smell illusion. This will last for 1 hour per excess/5, round up. |
| 11 | Screams of the damned echo in the mages ears, causing all tasks requiring concentration to be at -2. This this last 1d hours. |
| 12 | The contents of the mages stomach putrefy and rot at an astonishing rate. Unless he's been fasting for the past day, the Mage will be violently ill, and must make a HT roll at -2 or take 1d damage from poison. Even if he succeeds in voiding his stomach, he will still be shaken and weak for the rest of the day. Merely suggesting spell-casting will give him dry heaves. |
| 13 | Wasting Away: The mage loses 1 level of corpulence -- Obese to Overweight, Overweight to normal, etc. While this might be considered beneficial, it is a)temporary, and b)stressful. The Mage will be out cold for 1d6 hours. The weight will reappear in 1d6 days. Mages who drop below 'Skinny' gain the 'Unfit' disadvantage from Compendium. |
| 14 | Mindrot: The spell the mage cast which caused the Calamity is wiped from the Mages mind for 1d6 days. |
| 15 | Gravefear: The mage has seen things Man Was Not Meant To See. Gain a 10 point Phobia for 1-3 weeks. After this time, you will still have a quirk-level phobia. |
| 16 | Speaker Like The Dead: The mage gains the 'disturbing voice' disadvantage. This is permanent. |
| 17 | Greater Stench: As per 10, but permanent. |
| 18 | Withering: A random limb withers and is crippled. The limb will also look twisted and scarred. |
| 19 | Corrupt Visage: The mage loses one level of Appearence, permanently. |
| 20 | Greater Gravefear: As 15, but permanent. |
| 21 | Soulrot: Gain a 10 point Mental Disad, preferably something Callousness or Greed. |
| 22 | Lifebane: Gain the Lifebane disad, as per Compendium I. Oh yeah, AND deathstench. |
| 23 | The earth is filled with dead things, who now do not like you very much. All the corpses buried in the immediate area decide to attack you. If you're in the forest, this means zombie/skeleton animals...in any city, there will be at least 1d6 human dead buried underground, etc. If this happens while you're in a graveyard...oy. |
| 24 | Manadeath: Lose one level of Magery. Permenantly. |
| 25 | Healing magic no longer works on you;in fact, there is a 50% chance that any healing spell will, in fact, harm you. |
| 26 | "You Look Like Death Warmed Over!" And you do, too. Your weight drops to Skinny, your appearence to Ugly, and you gain Deathstench as 10, above. Also add 10 points in physical disads, preferably really gross ones. You ought to know by now -- Permenant |
| 27 | You can no longer consume normal food;you can live only of rotting,
putrid vegetables and maggot-infested meat. -4 Reaction roll. |
| 28 | Greater Soulrot: Toss on another 15 points of Mental disads. |
| 29 | You're dead, Jim. You are now Undead, and also an NPC. The GM can do all sorts of nasty things to your character before unleashing you on your former comrades. Ah well...where did you think liches came from? |
| 30-39 | As 29, plus Bad Things(tm) happen to the region. All the trees die. The dead rise from the ground to feed upon the living (tm). All healing magic stops working. Food putrefys at 10* the normal rate. Good thing you're already dead -- people really want to kill you. On the other hand, being dead, you can be made to suffer for a long, long, time... |
| 40+ | As 30-39, but you've just messed up the world. The gods are going to be looking for what's left of your soul. |