Toys for the Sandbox 107: The Trade Market

White smoke rises when it’s time for the Trade Fair. The tribes and clans gather. Colonists from Port Morganti come too bringing some really special stuff. But no two years are the same. This year there’s a drought. Game is scarce. Dwarf zombies are creeping out of the caves near the trade grounds - maybe even eating young children. A magical rage infected barbarian hunter Mordain and he killed someone. Now he’s got to provide sons for the dead guy, so there’s got to be a wedding. Smoke rising against blue skies and autumn leaves? the clans gathering? a wedding in the offing? It’s a  picturesque surfacescape, but destiny projections aren’t that good for anyone here. It’s good you’re there on the scene with the party. Hear that terrified screaming above the ambient sounds of the Songbird Stones? That’s the bride. Start there.

Toys for the Sandbox is not a module, it is not a campaign setting, instead it is a framework for GMs to use to reinforce their own imaginations. Sometimes players zig when you expect them to zag, other times they take your plot point into a back alley and leave it penniless and bleeding. Each week we present a new location with a map and some flavor text. In addition we add 4 NPCs with a bit of history and a few simple thoughts on how to stat them for whatever game you are playing. There are also 6 plot hooks each with 3 ways to twist them. Added to that there is usually a table or two filled with rumors and encounters.

Great for use with Legends of Anglerre, Strands of Fate, Dungeon World, Risus: The Anything RPG, FUDGE, Harnworld, and easily adaptable to Dungeons, and Dragons, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Pathfinder, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, The One Ring, HERO, GURPS, BRP, Barebones Fantasy and many others.