This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

Zephyr is a minor god in Greek mythology, where he stands for both the west wind and sexual desire. It also stands for a western wind, and is related to a word that means entering darkness.

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• Zephyr could be a kind of goggles which allow you to see in any direction but west, if you look west, you see only darkness.
• For some reason, Zephyr often ends up in a sack or a bottle and will create quite a squall if released.
• An Amulet of Zephyr could allow targets of throwing attacks to redirect it to a target of their choice (except for the thrower).

This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

Yob is basically an in-group-joke for boy, but can also describe an antisocial person with exaggerated male traits, for example a hooligan.

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• An insult for half-orcs
• A brutish half-kangaroo, half-human monster that shouts yob when it jumps to attack.

This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

Xylopyrography describes the art of burning pictures into wood.

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• Burnt wood could be a distinctive gnomish art style, separate both from dwarven stone chiseling and elven wood carbing.
• It could also be a school of druids that worship fire and wood, thus trying to use wood fires to turn the landscape into magical glyphs.

This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

A wentletrap is a family of sea snails which looks like a spiral staircase, and which are most likely carnivorous (and also not very well known).

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• Spiral stairs are a staple in dungeons, have one be the house of a snail!
• A wentletrap could be used to hide a message – if you speak it into the shell, it cannot be diviniated from the outside, but only be heard from whoever holds the shell to his ear.

This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

A volute is a spiral, scroll-like ornament, a compression spring or a curved funnel in a pump.

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• Of course, as a dungeon ornament. Feel free to use it plenty, especially in Greek themed dungeons!
• It could be a spring that stores the physical energy of former attempts to be released on an attempt of utmost importance – burning itself (and its user) on the occassion (perhaps 1d6 damage per stored attempt, but also causing increasing damage by 2d6 or jump width / height by one increment or running speed by 30 feet.)
• It could also be a cursed item that ensures regardless of what a user does (walking, running, jumping) he won’t get quicker or farther, the item cancelling out the increased effort.

This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

An unction can be several things: to sanctify something with a liquid, a kind of ointment (or salve), and an insincere show of emotion.

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• An unction could be a cursed ointment, turing a character into a sanctimonious bigot – in game terms, a temporary alignment shift to lawful neutral (they see everyone else as flawed) or chaotic neutral (everyone else seems to be condescending).
• An unction could work like a minor illusion if applied to lips, forehead and hands, make others see them as if they spoke with a booming voice, a halo shimmering above their head and a light emitting from them – probably granting a bonus to reaction rolls.

This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

A twill is a certain weaving technique that creates durable, but still light and moveable fabric. Twill fabric usually sports diagonal lines.

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• Dwarves or elves could have mastered the art of twill armour, where they create armour from normal materials (instead of magical material like mithril), that are more flexible, but just as durable as normal human armour.

This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

A squall is a sudden increase of wind speed that lasts for a minute or longer (as opposed to a gust which only lasts for a few seconds). It is usually accompanied by strong rain, thunder, and lightning. Sometimes, it also brings watersprouts along. While ordinary squalls can be detected some time in advance and thus allow a few moments to prepare, white squalls strike „out of the blue“ without any forwarning.

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• Cloud giants or other aerial magic-users could use a squall line as defense, as the unpredictable winds make flying difficult.
• A squall is a powerful weapon at sea, and can easily capsize typical fantasy age ships. Submarine pirates could very well employ them.
• They could be the true form of a storm god.
• If you can control the weather, a squall could be used by a melee dominant force to close distance with a missile based force, as the squall would make aiming difficult.

This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

A rhizome is an underground part of certain plants that can either grow out to reach new places or up to establish a new plant. They often come along with tubers that save nutritients to ensure the plants survival, Many pesky weeds have rhizoms, if the weed is only superficially removed, it will regrow from the rhizom. At the same time, rhizoms can be useful in a kitchen, as they are often connected to tubers which store nutrients – the best example of that is probably ginger.

A Rhizome can also be a philosophical and pedagogic concept which stresses the nonhierarchic interconnectedness of knowledge.

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• The rhizom could be a monster that shares HP among all members, to truly defeath those bands, one needs to cut the connections and mob them up in detail, ensuring the destruction of the regenerating nodes.
• Druids could use rhizom networks as information transport lines.
• It could be a more limited form of a hivemind, where participation requires a physical connection via the rhizom.
• It could also be a secret circle of diviners that call themselves The Rhizom and are organized in nodes and patches.

This post belongs to the #AtoZchallenge 2024, where I attempt to turn a word a day into something that can be used in Role Playing Games.

Quipu can both be a knot and a knot-based recording system from the Andean South America, most famous for the Inca. It was not just the Inca who used it though, other cultures did as well. Meaning is conveyed through a combination of colour, type of knot and amount of knots.

How to integrate it into your typical fantasy RPG?

• Use quipu instead of paper or parchment scrolls for magic spells.
• Hide information in plain sight by disguising a quipu as braided curtain.
• Have a quipu as riddle akin to the Machine of Lum the Mad, where tying and untying knots cause bizarre effects.