The Weird

Monte Cook Games The Weird Hardcover

The Weird contains more than 100 lists of ideas, each over 100 entries long—that’s well over 10,000 (more like 12,000) mind-bending bursts of inspiration. The lists are organized by genre, so you can easily reference those best suited for your game, whether it’s science-fiction, horror, fantasy, or whatever. Use them during game prep or on the fly to build great characters, encounters, or campaigns. Say the PCs just wandered into a bar—and you don’t want it to be like, well, every other bar or tavern. Flip to one of the Weird NPC lists and make the owner or a patron really unique. Or run with any of the following: Hanging above the restroom door is something from the Weird Unexpected Object list—like a human skull made of blue bone; dual candles shaped like two halves of different people’s heads, or a taxidermied cuttlefish of impressive size. A boisterous patron bears a Weird Tattoo, such as flames in the outline of a crow; the solar system, but with Jupiter misspelled as “Jupter”; or an elaborate key (that lets the bearer open any door with a touch). The bar suffers from something on the Weird Hauntings list: haunted scissors driven to sever fingers; a windup monkey toy that starts up at 11:11 p.m. every night; rat skeletons wearing tiny red bowties; or maybe a ghost from the future—of someone who isn’t dead yet! Perhaps there’s an unexplained object sitting on the bar (colored by an entry on the Weird Typical Item Enhancements list). Or the some of the patrons use a Weird Way to Communicate. Or there’s a resident dog, affected by a Weird Creature Appearance. You’ll never run out of ways to make this bar scene unique and memorable—and to bring that same color and verver to any location, character, creature, encounter, or plotline.