d30 Magic Swords

 I'm a big apologist for the classic +1 sword. Especially in a game with fewer bonuses to your attack roll, wielding a magic weapon always feels cool to me, and it's useful for a very common adventure game situation. They often just want a bit of pizzazz, some loving description or historical detail.

Cool extra abilities are cool (it's in the name) but I would say that it also helps to add some specificity. Many of the interesting swords of stories are interesting because they have some relationship to the wielder, the land, or the foe before them. 

In the list below, assume each sword is +1. Some have special abilities, others have special contexts. At no additional fee, some have both. If you want to roll on this table and you don't have a d30, just roll a d20 and add 0 or 5 or 10. They're in no particular order.

d30 Magic Swords

1. The masterpiece of this land's founding. Whoso wields it is rightwise king. If this seems arbitrary or even ridiculous to you, you have no trust in fate and no love in your breast.

2. This blade is the mark of a great and ancient comitatus, that not only wields the sword but aspires to be a swordsperson. To vanquish another wielder of such a blade heals you 1d4 HP per level, and to carry such a blade is to draw gauntlets from other duelists and from johuns and posers. Randomly encountered roughs should sometimes wield a sword of this type.

3. This blade is the mark of a great and ancient comitatus, but you will never be part of it. Their quest was broken, their dominion shattered, and those who recognize it do not like to be reminded of it, either for the ill it represents or the good it failed to defend.

4. When it gives someone their killing blow, this sword bisects or dismembers them, even defying logic. WHA-SHINK!

5. Bears an oddly glimmering edge. Can slice through anything softer than stone in one stroke, so long as it holds still and you narrate your stroke as a certainty rather than an attempt.

6. Hates a long-lived and crafty foe, burning or shimmering in warning of their servants.

7. Here is a sword that was given as a token, a love-sign of the elves or an adoption by the dwarves or some angel's grace-mark. The owner of the sword by the transmutation of love is a member of the giver-race, and more— for the slaying of a mer by a mer-friend or ghoul by one of the la tukal is worse than murder. It is a kin-slaying, for the orc-proven is not only an orc but a sibling to all orcs.

8. Much as a beyblade contains a bit-beast, this sword is imbued with a sacred animal that may deploy a signature move if the fighting spirit of the wielder is strong

9. This one is heavy, heavier than anything, but you can carry it. Its dweomer is to make the burden of a weapon literal, but to do likewise for its wielder's tenacity. Very few NPCs can even try to parry this blade, and more than a few will resent it.

10. From a workmanlike hilt comes a substance rare, light like shadow or web or rime, or fluid like fire or blood.

11. Dancing Sword. You fucked up, and now it’s dance or die. Sever nine heads in nine days, and in the instant you complete the geas you may throw it aside. Or let three rulers’ crowns encircle the sword, never resting until. Or serve a rough master until they ask five questions of you. It’s something odious and something you have to stumble through, and when you’re done it doesn’t feel like winning.

12. This is the bear-rider's sword, and if you wield it, you can ride a bear into battle, ignoring most or all of the buzzkill penalties

13. What? How can this be? You find the lost sword of your family. Its deeds were your family's deeds, its shame was their shame. When it was lost, so were they. How in the world did it get here, and how could it be you have come to find it?

14. Famously, this sword was used in some momentous deed whose effects are felt today. People can't help but consider the wielder's deeds in light of that elden use.

15. A long, deep crack runs along the blade. It rests in an arrested moment of blazing glory— within it are three swipes, a thrust, and a parry-and-riposte. Each is guaranteed to succeed, but if another sort of attack is attempted, or if the last move is performed, the sword finally shatters into a million pieces.

16. Beetle collector. If you're ready for it, you can try to slice projectiles out of the air with an attack roll that exceeds that of the attacker. For really big projectiles, like cyclops-thrown boulders, you probably have to figure out how to make your slices deal enough damage to thwart the boulder.

17. The black cat blade. Hurray, the sword comes with a loyal, purring shadow glimpsed at a distance and in darkness. Tragedy, for she seldom comes close enough to pet. Ask her a question, and in the morning you'll find a scavenged gift left for you in answer, promising weal or woe or weal and woe. A half-dissolved coin for the woe of the gelatinous cube. A scrap of cooked meat for the weal of a safe inn. A lock of hair for the weal and woe of a painful former love.

18. Used to be somebody. A curse mingled them into oppressor— violence— and victim— object. This princeling or mournful troll or caveman or spirit cannot speak when they have more tang than tongue, and cannot directly reveal the cure for their curse even when communicated with magically.

19. Occulted blade. This sword has no known history, which is confusing in itself. Where has it been and how long has it waited, that it has not interfered and won itself a name? Who forged it and why has it evaded notice so completely?

20. This one has a destiny, the kind of destiny that swords have. Its destiny's name is written along the fuller,and only that destiny's blood can wipe the name away. It will not break, unless snapped off in its destiny's armpit. If you are buried in a tomb, it will find a way out. Its destiny will not die a natural death.

21. Here a Reckoner, a sword against the tyrannies of nature. Makes the immortal wrath of a plague into one that can be fought, or solidifies the coiling hunger of famine so a sword may be stuck into it. No Reckoning-beckoner has ever managed to slay a heart's iniquity.

22. There a Reckoner, a sword to raise the tyrannies of nature. Makes the imagined wrath of a plague into a beast that can be ridden to Bethlehem, or solidifies the poetic coils of famine into a great beast for a warlord to command. No Reckoning-beckoner has ever died peacefully.

23. The tip of the blade softly glows and produces a thrumming hum. When you're in the dark and feel the wielder's approach, you decide for yourself if you really want to confront the master of a magic blade, or if you want to bide your time in the shadows. When in doubt, make a morale roll.

24. A weapon to hold a tripartite transformation. Hold it aloft under the open sky to call a fulminating metamorphosis, becoming as a Recidor— a nephil, a starknight, a roland. Slam it to the floor under the earth to raise a vulcanized rebirth, becoming as a Scansior— a diabol, a magman, a drizz't. Passing through the cope of the earth ends the change.

25. Sword that eats souls

26. Soul-catcher sword. Like a trapper spider, it swipes the soul from a deathblow, coating the blade in  fresh ectoplasm. Carefully collect it in a jar. Anoint a holy object in a tray full of it. Sip it from a bottle.

27. As-You-Like-It. Can go from the size of a pin to a lance to a narrow pillar. Perhaps the +1 to hit and damage is from the extra force of lengthening the sword as you strike?

28. A weapon belonging to your great foe, that remembers the echoes of their plans and their hidden byways.

29. A slayer's sword, that has learned to cut through dragon breath, or slice open gorgonized statues, or buffet wight-stench.

30. Katana, roll twice and combine

d20 Cargo Robots

I imagine these are the real standard types, variations on which you will find in far-flung sci-fi starports. Perhaps many of these were a brand-name model at one point, but after decades of time and light-years of distance you can't suppress these obvious winners with intellectual property law.

Please draw these. Draw one of these. Draw a picture of a bot and show it to me.

d20 Cargo bots

1. Mule, a biped with forklift arms

2. Liger, a forklift with humanoid arms

3. LD, a trundling cylinder with shower-head arms that generate anti-gravity

4. Oersted, a smiling box that sticks magnetic vertex stickers on crates to lug them about electrically

5. Flockers, a cloud of suction-drones

6. Ulysses Lifter, a two-meter disc with a computer in the side, a tube running from it to stomach-level, and a screen interface

7. Auto-Snake, an autonomous go-kart that drags and attaches fuel lines. Can carry lighter goods that are strapped down by teamsters

8. Toplines, a mechanical puppets that ride around on rails installed in the warehouse ceiling, belaying up and down at will.

9. Grasp Droid, a big claw on wheels, fitted with sensitive sectional weight distributors for precise and safe carry

10. Sancho, with a tripod of deer-like legs and a hydraulic humanoid torso

11. Fernjack, a rolling cart with tendrils at one end to arrange and steady loads

12. Fido, a wheel that fits into axle of specially prepared crates to drag them around.

13. Spoonlift, a real big wheel with forks on the front and a hyperdense round counterweight on the back, dropping the counterweight to lift a load and drive around like a penny farthing bicycle.

14. Viker, a wide dolly with shoulder-high sides. Rolls right under a crate, tips back, and rolls away, barely hyper-competent at balancing its load.

15.Row Rack, a car-sized frame with hydraulic bows on the side. Drives over a crate and tightens the bows to carry it. Grumbles like a bear.

16. Heron, a metal giant like a terrible, tall angel with broad, shuffling feet. From the chest, a crane extends, gripped by knife-elbowed hands for stability.

17. Zipper-Tractor, a waist-high RC tumbler tank dragging a trailer on an ingenious hitch that won’t upset the load even if the tank fully flips over

18. Floor-Raft, a millipede of rollers with a rider plate at the back to carry workers and a loading-ramp mouth

19. Leap Pal, a friend-shaped squared biped with incredibly dangerous jetpack

20. Powerdrag, a sassy pallet jack

At worksites, assume there is an SOP which effectively prevents most potential accidents and carefully stows all hazards, Whenever one comes up, roll 2d6. On an 8+, wise precautions have been closely followed. On a 6+, they've been approximately followed. On a 5 or less, they've been ignored or replaced with an easier, ineffective procedure. Cyber-security gets a -2 penalty.

d20 Cargo Bot Quirks

1. Runs hot/cold. Workers use a compartment in the chassis to boil coffee and other hot drinks or store snacks along the coolant lines

2. Gives off fumes. Workers issued PPE. Some opt to ride the high of lightheadedness and slowed time

3. Talkative-- makes many beeps and pops with a speaker.

4. Discontinued and beloved. Newer versions are available, but they suck

5. Requires constant remote direction by an operator, for union reasons

6. Technically classed as mechanized operating suit, requiring a wearer to function for legal reasons

7. Frequently shuts down in accordance with hour of service regulations 

8. Chummy, with a quaint programmed personality

9. Easily explosive with some tech know-how. Worksites use this to discourage theft of the bot.

10. Contractually obligated presence, due to nepotism, covering for a corporate boondoggle, or to buy off the manufacturer’s political arm

11. Fully intelligent. Enjoys working, but stands up to mistreatment

12. Unnecessarily evocative or attractive (😳) mascot painted on the side

13. Oversensitive. Barks an alarm at almost anything

14. Sloshing. Needs a regular top-up of petroleum, saltwater, exc.

15. "Cyborg", integrating biological elements like a cattle brain processor, miniature fuel-generating biosphere, or regenerative fur padding.

16. Proprietary. Can only legally be serviced by a shadowy corporate camorra, with hardware built-in to threaten tinkerers.

17. Reclaimed. Created by an ancient society or driven-off aliens or outlaws, and built to serve their sensibilities.

18. Spy. Unlike most elements of the surveillance network, this one is publicly acknowledged under the fig leaf of efficiency tracking or scientific management principles

19. Integrated terminal. Internet severely but ineptly hobbled. Password written in marker on the keyboard.

20. Roll twice and combine