Garden- Strange Object Generator

These objects are the most mysterious and secret treasures of Garden. Often hoarded by the rich, these incredible objects are only found within the lockers that line the walls in Garden's secret underground service tunnels, which no one truly owns or has fully mapped. The mysterious tunnels are dangerous and finding a locker with anything in it is rare, but whenever they are found, they can fetch a high price- if you can get it out of there in one piece.

Roll once for each table.

Physical Form – 1d20

[1] Guitar OR Saxophone

[2] Toaster

[3] Film Reel. Don't try to watch it.

[4] Unopened glass bottle of Coca Cola

[5] Martini Glass

[6] Origami folded from newspaper. The shape is a random animal.

[7] Really big book. It's an almanac for a city you've never heard of.

[8] Penny OR Single Bullet

[9] Steering Wheel.

[10] Pinstripe Suit. One size off.

[11] Fuzzy Dice. Like the kind you hang from your rear view mirror.

[12] Milk man's cap.

[13] Typewriter.

[14] Powder case. Mirror in the lid.

[15] Ceramic Lamp. Pink, with white lampshade.

[16] Rotary Phone. If you plug it in and try to use it, you just hear ominous whispers.

[17] Teddy Bear

[18] The object is something from the past of whoever opened the locker.

[19] The object is a bit old fashioned. Roll on the Random Item Table.

[20] Roll on this table again, but roll once on the Unusual Form table below.

Unusual Form – 1d12

The strange object gets to be extra strange. This unusual form modifies the object you roll on the physical form table.

[1] It's rusted, corroded, or moth-eaten very heavily. Still works otherwise.

[2] The object is warped, as though bent through a machine. Still works otherwise.

[3] The object is covered in stickers/patches, autographs, graffiti, etc.

[4] Made of paper mache. If Origami Shape- it's made of folded sheet metal.

[5] Made of metal. It looks like a perfect cast. If it's already metal- double in size.

[6] It's not an object, just a life-sized portrait of an object instead. Artist's skill is phenomenal.

[7] Normal appearance, glows in the dark. Random color.

[8] Normal appearance, hums ominously in quiet places.
[9] Normal appearance, but sepia tone. Like it was pulled out of a movie.
[10] The object grows little green mushrooms out of its cracks. Only if kept moist.

[11] The object grows fur, which can be pulled out easily. Sheds.

[12] The object grows metal spikes, which can be clipped with some difficulty. Be careful.

Abilities

Every Strange Object has an ability. There are six kinds of strange object abilities. In order to “get” the benefit or negative of any ability, the person must be the last one to touch it or currently holding/carrying it. Objects small enough to fit in the palm of your hand or pocket must be carried to have their effects, otherwise you must touch an object once a week and be the last person to touch it to have the effects. Large objects that cannot be carried grant their effects to its "owner"- usually the person who last touched it. You must touch the object once a week to continue its ability.

Very rarely, certain Strange Objects are found with incredible abilities- even for a Strange Object. For a Major strange object; roll on the special subtable. If you roll a Major Strange object with identical abilities to another one in your campaign; reroll. These are unique.

Basic Ability Table - 1d6

[1] Lucky

[2] Cursed

[3] Bane

[4] Boon

[5] Psychic Amplifier

[6] Psychic Blocker

Strange Object Abilities

Lucky items grant luck to their owner. This translates as a +1 to any d20 roll, once per night. This effect is usually passive but can be called upon by a character by stroking the amulet, affixing their “lucky” hat, etc. This power can only work on one person once per night; if you steal a lucky item after it's been used, you'll feel like its luck has been “used up” until tomorrow.

For objects that are small, they must be carried to have the effect. For larger objects, you simply need to touch it once a week. Large objects can also grant this effect a degree of separation away; if you order someone to do something for you, the 'luck' of this item can benefit whoever you are ordering around. There are crime lords who have “antiques” in their homes that are actually lucky items from the storage lockers; things just seem to go their way and their gang prospers.

Cursed items are the opposite of lucky items. If you touch a cursed item, you automatically fail the next saving throw that comes your way. Unlike lucky items, this has no limit on how many people or times it can harm you, but only one “curse” hangs over you at a time until it strikes. Wearing thin gloves when you touch it or brushing up against it still counts as touching it- you need a more secure or thicker case to protect yourself from its effects for transport.

Cursed items work if you touch it, if it be small or big. If you can trick or force someone into touching it, it could be used as a kind of weapon, but otherwise it's just a liability. However, even Cursed items are worth a fortune, as any Strange Object is very valuable.

Banes are Strange Objects that seem to be anathema to the psychic manifestations and unnatural beings of Garden. While carrying a Bane, you have +2 to hit and deal +2 damage to all psychic beings or constructs of unknown energies. Uniquely, carrying a Bane makes damage you deal against a reality warper not be able to healed by their normal regeneration.

Banes are uncommon, highly sought after items used to hunt down and kill Slashers, Reality Warpers, and other spooky threats that lurk in Garden's shadows. Note that these hunts fail just as often as they succeed, and the Banes are constantly being lost or destroyed, even among the Strange Objects, these are a rarity.

Boons are Strange Objects that are especially stable, and spread that stability to others. The Boon item will be especially hard to damage; ceramic or glass items are weirdly shatter proof, metal items bend back into shape if twisted, cloth and wooden items seem fire retardant. If you carry or have last touched a Boon item, your maximum Hit Points increases by +2. If you go with a week without touching the item, you lose this benefit (maximum, not current).

Boons are commonly seen among the more adventurous sorts of Garden's populace. While a small benefit, the ability to better survive a gunshot or a beating is extremely valuable. The Boon also has a unique ability- if touched by a person with an incurable or terminal illness they receive a saving throw. Upon success, the Boon loses its power permanently and the person becomes healed. If the saving throw fails, the item keeps its power and the person cannot try again on this item, though could have better luck with another Boon- you can imagine how desperate a sick person may be to collect these.

Psychic Amplifiers are the most highly sought after Strange Objects. They enhance waves of psychic energy and sharpen the mind of any psychics who carry it or who have lasted touched it. The psychic in question deals +1 damage with Psychic attacks, and their Psychic powers are boosted by a magnitude of about 10%. So if they could telekinetically shove a 200 pound man, they could now shove a 220 pound man and so on.

Psychic Amplifier are sought after and collected by rich and powerful psychics to boost their powers, but many of the ones who collect them can become too powerful and begin unlocking mind-bending, reality warping abilities instead. The Psychic Amplifers also have a unique ability- if touched by someone with psychic potential, they awaken their psychic powers over the next 2d6 weeks, and the item loses its charge. For this reason, Psychics are even more defensive about these items then one might imagine, and will stop at nothing to hide or keep others away.

Psychic Blockers are Strange Objects with the ability to confound psychic energies and break them apart, similar to interference with radio waves. If you carry a Psychic Blocker, you get +1 resistance to psychic attacks (and +1 to saving throws against psychic powers). If the psychic blocker is too large to carry, then it offers no benefit for touching it but instead “blanks” out the area around out, equal to an apartment or wing of a house, which blocks all attempts at psychic scrying or sensing abilities.

Psychic Blockers are very useful Strange Objects to get a hold of, especially if you're wanted or made a powerful rival in the psychic world. The resistance is also very useful for adventuring types, as it can help protect you against both psychic attacks, psychic traps, and psychic creatures or other negative manifestations of psychic energy and unsolved pathos. In Garden, negative psychic energy can bleed from the walls in some places, and this object acts almost like an anchor to the real world.

 

Major Strange-Object Ability - 1d12
[1] Roll on the basic ability table; triple effect.

 

[2] Roll twice on the basic ability table; combine effects. If you get luck + cursed, it makes YOU lucky, but curses EVERYONE else near you.
 

[3] If you tap, open, shake, or 'use' the object in a specific way; it can release a massive cloud of purple smoke. The smoke can fill up an auditorium. Breathing the smoke for more then three rounds means you must save or be knocked unconscious for a turn.

[4] If the object is small and carried or worn with you; you cannot be harmed by bullets. (Unless if the shooter possess a Bane). The bullets just miss you or hit you but don't "do anything"- the same applies to your own bullets however, and all your guns jam or fail. If the object cannot be carried with you, then all guns and firearms jam and fail within the range of a city block around it. The object's ability is nullified as long as it is kept in a thick, opaque case or hidden in a closet somewhere.

 

[5] This object transforms once per week- roll a new Physical Form every week. If the object had an Unusual Form, it will always have that same unusual form, otherwise it never gets one (reroll 20s). You cannot observe this object in mid transformation. Carrying or owning this object stops your from aging, but you slowly change into something else.

 

[6] Within pure darkness, this object becomes a horrible monster. If any light falls on it at all, it simply remains as an object. It will try to escape, and has inscrutable goals.

[7] If you carry this object with you, you can once per week walk through a door that leads somewhere else in the city- you'll appear through a door about three blocks away. If you own this object for at least four years you can begin to decide exactly what door to appear out of that you know, but it must be within the same borough of Garden as a maximum range.

 

If the object is too large to carry; it works differently. Instead, it allows you to create a semi-permanent portal. You can select a random door, such as an antique door leaning against a wall, a manhole, closet, etc. that will become your emergency portal. You can end up walking through your emergency portal by running blindly, getting lost, or closing your eyes and counting to ten. Maximum once a week.

[8] Somewhere on this object is a dial or knob. If you turn the dial, you can "adjust" how visible you are to others. All the way down makes everyone ignore you, able to walk right past armed guards. Where as all the way up makes you very popular and you can't even attempt stealth. 

 

This is a psychic or mental effect, not a physical one; you still show up on cameras and are still physical present. People who are hunting you can figure out to shoot where footprints appear as you run even if they can't actually "see" you. This object is also unique as someone can adjust the knob besides you to adjust your setting- it doesn't count as adjusting their own visibility unless they own it or carry it for at least a week.

[9] This object has a "care taker". Somewhere on the object is a name- speaking the name will cause a strange person to appear behind the nearest shadowy corner or from behind you. This person looks like a generic alien of whatever world this object came from. This person sees and hears everything the object can, and can be asked questions. They are generally helpful and know tons of secrets about the city and the previous owners, but cannot guarantee their loyalty to you (they serve whoever owns the item) and refuse to speak on anything about the underground service tunnels.

[10] This object produces money. If the object is small enough to be carried around in your pocket, then it produces a few crumbled dollar bills in it when you reach in. If the object is worn or carried around, then the money will be produced inside of the object, or spit out of a slot when turned on or shaken, etc. Objects carried in the pocket can produce a maximum of $5 per night, and are essentially there when you need them. Objects larger then that can produce a maximum of $20 per night, but don't have to be drawn out at once and can be stored up a while inside the object like a piggy bank.

 

Obviously, anyone who owns this object will gain a new source of income and be quite rich. The money is created by the object, but can't be detected as counterfit. If the Garden city council switches the currency over, the object will create strange "half dollars" or bills that look like a mix of both for up to a month until it gets it right, producing the right kind of legal tender again.

 

[11] This object acts as a bank for psychic energy. If you touch the object while you have Psychic stress, the object absorbs 1d6 points of Psychic stress. If you touch the object more then once a night, or if someone without any psychic stress touches it, they are blasted with 2d10 Psychic stress from its stored energy bank. If the object is destroyed, up to an entire city block will be overloaded with psychic energies, causing mass hysteria, unconsciousness, and psychic feedback. All psychic manifestations or creatures gain +1 HD and become more aggressive during this storm.

 

[12] Touching this object gives you 1d6 Psychic stress, but grants the user a random Psychic Power for about twelve hours. Even people with zero psychic ability can be bestowed a power. When this period ends, they take another 1d6 Psychic stress and one point of internalized stress. 

 

If a Psychic touches this, they gain a second psychic ability which combines with their first for the same period, but causes no stress. This item can create reality warpers; as few psychics can remain sane after experiencing such a rush of power. The exception are Blankers; touching this object permanently drains it of its charge and the Blanker's power remains unchanged.