100 Encounters for a Fantasy Desert (2019)

Publisher Blurb:

Deserts are popular locations in fantasy settings. They can be home to strange civilisations, either still extant or long-lost, with unique and unusual magics. There may be tombs hidden by the sands and nomads traversing the wastes. This supplement has one hundred different encounters for such a location, which may be potentially valuable, potentially dangerous, a source of adventure hooks or simply background colour. The encounters are strongly influenced by Egyptian and Arabian desert imagery, but should be suitable for most settings.

This PDF supports Adobe layers and the page backgrounds and images can be disabled to make printing easier.

Here are some sample results:

A mostly collapsed opening in the side of a cliff has several spoil heaps near to it. Inside the entrance, the tunnel appears to go deeper into the cliff and was propped up by wooden supports, most of which have now collapsed, making the former mine dangerous to enter. If the spoil heaps are investigated, a few fragments of turquoise suggest that this was a former turquoise mine.

An area of sand can be seen sparkling in the sun in many different colours from some distance away. When the sand is approached, it appears to be made of many tiny, gem-like crystals. However, the crystals are made of sand that fused into tiny pieces of glass by some unknown method, with the colours coming from different impurities. It is only worth money as a decorative curiosity.

An oasis of date palms surround a pool of clear, clean fresh water. The oasis looks like it should be a useful waypoint, but appears to be unused. Further exploration reveals bones of humans and animals buried in the soil, for the entire oasis is a predatory creature that waits for visitors to get close to the water before attacking.

An oddly rectangular-looking low sand dune can be discovered to actually be a large wooden sled, on which is a limestone statue, 50’ high, of a man with a baboon’s head. The statue and sled appear to have been abandoned in the desert.

An orchard of long dead and dry trees pokes through the sands. Presumably they grew when the region was more fertile. Careful examination of the trees reveals that they are of a type that would have produced the resin, frankincense, but with the trees being dead and dry, there is no resin to be found.

One page is the front cover, one the front matter and most of a page is ads.

The supplement is also available in a Pathfinder version, which is slightly longer and contains some Pathfinder stats. You do not need both versions.