Narcosmos: Transformative Idea Generator

THIS IS WAR TO EXTERMINATION. FIGHT CELL BY CELL THROUGH BODIES AND MIND SCREENS OF THE EARTH. – William S. Burroughs

In Narcosmos, ideas are infectious and transformative. They are weapons that cannot be easily controlled, but those in tune with the psychosphere may channel ideaspace for unique effects.

The table below demonstrates the unpredictable power of such ideas. To use this table, the game master should roll 1d16 three times, generating a compound idea with an adjective, noun, and effect. This idea becomes a kind of verbal hypersigil, and if spoken aloud, the effect occurs. The ideas may come randomly to the PCs in their sleep, or they may be scrawled on the walls of dreamspace or in forgotten tomes found in the sewers of distant planets. Once used, each idea may never be repeated.

NARCOSMOS TRANSFORMATIVE IDEA GENERATOR
Roll 1d16	Adjective	Noun	Effect
1	Mental	Mantis	You grow a hunchback, purple and throbbing, and after three days of slow growth, it bursts into 2d8 mechanical beetles that obey your commands until the end of the day. The beetles attack as first level fighters and bite for 1d4 damage each, have an AC of 7 (13) and 1 hp each. Anyone bitten by the beetles must save vs. poison or fall into a delirious narcoleptic coma for 1d4 turns.
2	Love	Beak	A metal coffin appears beside you. You feel like it has always been there, but you have never noticed. It cannot be moved and only you can open it. Inside is a floating sphere of condensed time. If you hold this ball in both hands, you may transport you and your immediate companions 1d6 weeks into the past or 1d6 weeks into the future. The timesphere and the coffin disappears after that single use.
3	Hallucinogenic	Ladydactyl	Blood drips from the sky, as if the gods are slaughtered in the heavens. This lasts for 1d12 weeks and follows you wherever you go.
4	Opulent	Axeman	You transform into a 13’ tall floating head for 1d4 turns. While in this form, you may not use melee or ranged attacks, and your AC and HP remain the same, but you may cast magic and unleash psionic blasts dealing 1d12 damage to anyone within sight unless they make a successful save vs. death.
5	Laughing	Prison-Moon	You temporarily teleport yourself to a floating island in space where you must confront the six-legged jaguar woman who will neither attack nor defend but will ask you a single question: are you prepared? If you say yes you will be transported back with -2 to your Int and Wis and +1 to your Str and Con and a permanent hp gain of 1d6. If you say no you will be transported back with +2 to your Int and Wis and -1 to your Str and Con and the permanent ability to cast one randomly determined level 2 magic user spell, even if are not a spellcaster. If you say nothing you will remain on the floating island forever.
6	Shrieking	Flashback	A syringe gun appears in your hand and you immediately know how to use it. It can fire 1d12 times before becoming inert. Each time it is fired at a target, there is a 50% chance it will unleash a torrent of mind-acid dealing 1d12 psychic damage and a 50% chance that the chemwave emission will mimic the effect of a randomly-determined level 3 illusionist spell.
7	Invisible	Lobotomy	You understand. As the game master any one question about the current adventure or campaign and he must answer in one truthful complete sentence.
8	Guardian	Spacewhale	You gain a limited form of speak with animals that allows you to psychically communicate with felines.
9	Transcribed	Nucleon	Each day for the next 1d8 days, you gain a cumulate -1 penalty to all attributes and all rolls. After the final day, you awaken the next morning to discover that the penalties have disappeared – you feel healthy again – but you have given birth to a humanoid fly the size of a rat. If you discard or kill this fly-baby, you will take 1d20 psychic damage. If you raise this fly-baby, it will grow to adulthood in 30 days and vanish into the psychosphere where you will only meet it again in your dreams.
10	Blackhole	Androgyne	Your shoulder blades transform into a flesh and bone jetpack due to heretofore unknown nanomachines. This effect is permanent, giving you a movement of fly 60’. All armor is useless to you unless it is custom made for your new form.
11	Singing	Jumpsuit	You permanently gain the following psychiatric disorder (roll 1d6): (1) agoraphobia, (2) delusions, (3) fetishism, (4) narcolepsy, (5) paranoia, (6) insomnia.
12	Naked	Ray	You gain the ability to transform into a giant floating jellyfish that can sting at a range of 15’ with its tendrils as if attacking as a level 5 fighter, dealing 1d10 damage and the victim must save vs. poison or become afflicted with an itchy rash that causes a -4 penalty to all rolls until salt water is applied to the affected area. While in jellyfish form, your armor class, hp, attributes, and abilities remain unchanged, though you are unable to communicate and unable to cast spells with material or verbal components. You have is jellyfish transformation ability for 1d4 days.
13	Headless	Insect	1d4 giant orange rats with attached saddles and bridles arrive via the dreamstream, ready to be ridden. The dream rats have a movement rate of 60’ and may enter the astral realm or any adjacent plane. The rats will not attack, nor can they take damage. They will disappear in 1d6 days.
14	Frozen	Yellowjackets	Your belly grows bloated and your hair falls out. In 1d4 days, your skin begins to turn a tarnished bronze color. At that point, you permanently lose 1d6 hp and -1 Strength, but gain +1 AC, +1 Wisdom, and the ability to read the thoughts of anyone within 10’.
15	Perfect-Punk	Mouth	A warped mirror image of you appears. This mirror image duplicate looks identical to you, though his garb is all yellow, red, and purple and he speaks in an alien tongue. He will fight alongside you, as if another PC under the player’s control with stats and equipment identical to yours, for 1d8 turns before disappearing.
16	Technowarrior	Monad	A tattoo of a winged mass of mouths appears on your chest, and you take 1d6 damage per day and find yourself incapable of sleep. The only way to prevent this effect is to “feed” the tattoo drops of spinal fluid. If 8 ounces of spinal fluid are fed to the tattoo, you permanently gain +1 Int and the tattoo begins to glow green but has no other lingering effects.