By Lee Hammock

The Playthings of History

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Tiny Terrors
Artwork: James Jarvis and Corey Reid
Through ritual and ceremony the shamans and wizards of the world imbued the playthings of children with the energy of creation and Spirit, giving them life and power with which to defend the children of the world from the Shaded King. Not all toys were imbued so; only toys in the possession of children threatened by the Shaded King (known as "The Boogeyman" to children) would come to life. These toys, charged by the power of creation and the affection of their owners, could move about under their own power and even use the traits of their form or other toys as if they were real objects. A wooden doll of a warrior could use his shield and axe as if they were made of steel, while a bear made of cloth could rend with its claws. These small warriors of Spirit would defend humanity's children in the dark and in the light, forever watchful. In time the energy of creation that once suffused the world faded. The spirit toys weakened until they could not move in the presence of those who did not believe in their power, crushed by the might of mass manufacture and merchandising that reduced toys from being something wondrous to being something disposable. Still the toys fight on as best they can, seeking to protect their charges from the Boogeyman. Long ago when humankind first walked the Earth, great evil walked it with them. Older than us, from the time before sentience and rational thought infected our minds, these ancient evils preyed on us, both our flesh and our souls. Eventually these creatures were trapped in realms beyond this one by shamans, wizards, and spirit talkers of the ancient world. There were six of these terrible beasts, and each was imprisoned in their own realm, cut off from the souls and flesh they drew sustenance from. Behind otherworldly barriers they languished for time unknown before they found a weakness in their prisons. It was after the rise of agriculture among the tribes of humanity that the Six Beasts learned they were not alone in their prisons and bent the other creatures trapped with them to their will. These lesser creatures could pass through the barriers between worlds and bring back sustenance for the Six Beasts. Again the magic-workers of humanity stepped forth to combat this new threat, erecting magical defenses in this realm against the new minions of the Six Beasts. Each of the Six Beasts were targeted with their own massive ritual. The one performed to stop the Beast known as the Shaded King was the strongest since he was known to prey upon helpless children.

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Tiny Terrors
A Childs World
The lives of children within Tiny Terrors are much as we adults remember it, only with two startling differences: there really is a monster under the bed or in the closet, and our toys really do come to life. The Boogeyman is still a very real threat to the children of the world, able harvest the innocence of children through acts of terror and fright. The Boogeyman targets the children whose innocence he desires with scary noises, voices in the darkness, hideous images in their room, or even violence. He prefers to leave children alive, but eventually his minions to scare all shreds of innocence out of his victims, leaving them blank, Spiritless human beings who will never dream again. Once the Boogeyman sends minions into the real world the ancient spells of the magic-workers of old activate, creating toy guardian Spirits around those children that are threatened. These animated toys have little in the way of memories, but do have personalities, skills, and abilities based on the shape and purpose of their toy. Army toys know about fighting, weapons, and military procedure from the moment they awake, while stuffed animals know about their animalistic traits and powers. These Spirits form in the toys most beloved to the threatened child. Each Spirit toy gains its power from the affection of its owner, expending energy to carry out certain actions in the execution of its duty, and it must be played with by the child in order to regain that Spirit energy. Usually toys carry out their missions within the confines of their child's room, but occasionally must travel elsewhere to defeat the Boogeyman. The minions of the Boogeyman may set up shop in the attic or basement, which may be but a short journey, but dodging adults, family pets, and other concerns can make such trips very dangerous indeed. Even more harrowing are trips to the Backyard, where many a toy has met its fate at the hands of a mean-spirited neighbor or an all-consuming pit of mud. Still, the Backyard is a prime location for the Boogeyman to strike, especially at night. Occasionally the Boogeyman targets a group of friends to terrorize, encouraging them to share their fears with their fellows and spread the terror. Such circumstances often result in the much heralded Sleepover, where the toys of several children can combine their forces to make one massed foray against the Boogeyman. Any toy in the possession of a child threatened by the Boogeyman can become a Spirit toy, though Spirit energy seems to favor handmade or antique toys over newer toys. Stuffed animals, action figures, dolls, construction blocks, and even security blankets are found among the spirit toys.

Running a Tiny Terrors Campaign

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In a Tiny Terrors campaign the player characters are toys that must defend their owner from the Boogeyman and his minions. They may be newly awakened toys fresh out of the package, long treasured toys of an older time, or something in between. If possible it may help a Tiny Terrors campaign for each player to find a real toy that approximates the appearance and abilities of their character. The combat system in Tiny Terrors uses 5 in. as the basic unit of measure instead of 5 ft., meaning players could actually use toys instead of miniatures if they so desire. This also helps create realistic and interesting terrain as the game could be played on the floor of a room complete with furniture and other objects. In such cases use all the distances listed as normal. Eventually the toys may become powerful enough to challenge the Boogeyman directly, traveling to the Nightmare Realm to do battle. They can try and rescue children taken to the Nightmare Realm or destroy the Boogeyman's store of innocence, hopefully starving him. If they are brave enough they could try and accomplish what no one else has and destroy the Boogeyman, or at least weaken him for a time. In the end, the owner of the toys will grow up and forget them so the warrior toys do not last forever, but this does not diminish what they accomplished in their time.

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Tiny Terrors
The Rules
The rules for Tiny Terrors are the same as those found in the d20 Modern SRD with some modifications. Those modifications are as follows. Action Points Toys in Tiny Terrors do not get action points. Instead they get Spirit, which may be used in a similar fashion in addition accomplishing a variety of other tasks. See Chapter 4 for more information. Allegiance Toys generally only have an allegiance to their child, though other allegiances are possible. They generally do not have allegiances to ideas or concepts such as Good, Law, or Chaos. Only the most dastardly of traitor toys have an allegiance to the Boogeyman. Distance and Movement Distance and movement in Tiny Terrors is measured in inches with each square on a map or grid equaling 5 in. instead of 5 ft. This means an average Medium sized character has a speed of 30 in. All distances measured in feet in the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game are instead measured in the same amount of inches. Weight is calculated according to the scale of the toys as if they were normal sized creature, so a Medium sized toy weighs 60-500 lbs., his toy gun weighs 3-10 lbs., and an adult human weighs hundreds of tons. Keep in mind that terrains that cause humans no problems may be very treacherous for toys. Stairs must be scaled like cliffsides, and lawns are like impenetrable jungle. Toys often have access to vehicles, such as remote control cars, but driving these vehicles on rough terrain inflicts a -4 penalty on all Drive checks unless they were designed for off-road operation or have treads.

penalty on any skill checks involved. Adults are assumed to be Colossal in size, while children are Huge or Gargantuan depending on their age. Family pets are another matter. Not being sentient, they cannot chose to disbelieve in the existence of Spirit toy and thus the toys may behave normally in their presence. Pets and other animals are treated as animal creatures of Huge, Gargantuan, or Colossal size and they may interact normally with the toys. For stats for pets and other animals use the appropriate type of animal from the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game and modify its hit dice and abilities to be appropriate for a creature of its now massive size. For example a house cat, which is normally Tiny size with 1/8 hit dice modified to be Huge would have at least 6d8 hit dice and would have a base claw damage of 2d4. Some examples of family pets are included in Chapter 5. Equipment Other than gear gained from accessory feats (see Chapter 3), toys have limited equipment. Simple items like rope, sleeping bags or tents may be found and used by toys without requiring an accessory feat. Toys may temporarily use complex toy items they find, such as toy guns, tools, or cars, as if they were part of that toy's equipment by spending Spirit (see chapter 4). There are no stores for toys to purchase equipment, meaning items must be salvaged from other toys. Occupation Toys in Tiny Terrors do not have an occupation. They instead gain extra feats and class skills from their toy type. Reputation Reputation in Tiny Terrors functions only for other toys and among children. When a reputation check is made involving other toys a successful check means they have heard of that specific toy warrior and his exploits. If a reputation check is made involving children success means that the child has heard of the toy and its line of toys, but not any information about that specific toy warrior. If a reputation check involving a child succeeds by 10 or more points the child knows something about the toy warrior's exploits, though such knowledge is incomplete and has been filtered through the stories told by his friends or urban legend. Wealth Bonus Toys do not possess material wealth and thus do not have wealth bonuses. Hence the Windfall feat is not available.

Humans and Pets Human beings are beyond the scope of toy warriors to harm or affect in any sense. They are too large to match physically and adults disbelieve in the spirit toys so strongly the toys have trouble even moving in their presence (see chapter 4). Because of this humans are considered difficult terrain or traps rather than creatures that can be attacked or affected with Spirit magic. They are not represented via creature stat blocks. The main concern when interacting with an adult human is if it can see a toy warrior, so Spot checks are often the only roll involved in such encounters. See chapter 4 for more information on how humans interact with toys. Any attempts by a toy to use a human device, such as a real car or computer, imposes at least a -4

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Tiny Terrors
Character Creation
Character creation for Tiny Terrors follows the same basic process detailed in the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game, with some changes as listed below. Instead of races, players select a toy type from the list below. Characters do not select occupations because toys do not have jobs. The same basic classes from d20 Modern Roleplaying Game are used, though they have new names and new talent trees are available for each one.

have little ability with the finer points of Spirit magic, preferring to solve things through more direct and physical means. Action figures rely on equipment more than other toys. Action figures from successful toy lines are often equipped with matching gear all drawn from their brand, while action figures from less successful lines may have to salvage gear from other types of toys. Toy Type Traits: Action Figures share the following toy type traits. Creature Type: Humanoid Size: Medium Ability Modifiers: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma Speed: 30 inches Accessory Feat List: Armor, Backpack, Color Change, Darkvision, Die Cast Construction, Increased Ability, Kung Fu Grip, Lights, Locomotion, Low Light Vision, Melee Weapon, Natural Armor, Natural Weapon, Parachute, Playset (Basic), Playset (Mobile), Playset Awareness, Playset Defenses, Playset Secrecy, Ranged Weapon, Size, Speed, Tools, Vehicle (Basic), Vehicle (Advanced), Voice Box, Voice Box (Conversation), Walkie Talkie, Well Known. Class Skills: The following skills are class skills for the action figure: Climb, Drive, Intimidate, Jump, Knowledge (Tactics), Pilot, Spot, Repair, Treat Injury. Bonus Feats: Action figures may select one of the following feats as a bonus feat: Archaic Weapon Proficiency or Personal Firearms Proficiency. Bonus Accessory Feats: Action figures may select four accessory feats as bonus feats. Base Spirit: 1

Accessory Feats
A number of new feats are available, including a new class of feats: accessory feats. For more information on accessory feats, see the section on feats, below.

Spirit
All spirit toys have Spirit points. Spirit points may be spent to accomplish a number of things, from boosting die rolls to activating special abilities. A character begins each adventure with a number of Spirit equal to his base Spirit for his toy type + his character level + his highest ability score bonus + any Spirit bonuses due to feats or class abilities. This is the character's maximum Spirit. The character's current Spirit is equal to his maximum Spirit minus any Spirit used. Spirit automatically returns to the character's maximum Spirit between adventures and may only be gained during adventures if the toy is played with by a child or of if another toy shares his Spirit. For a full explanation of what Spirit can be used for see Chapter 4.

Toy Types
Players must select from the following toy types for their character. Each toy type has a list of accessory feats it may select from. Selecting accessory feats not on this list costs 2 accessory feat slots. All toy types have the following abilities: Toy Immunities: Toys are immune to suffocation, dehydration and starvation. They can only be affected by poisons and diseases of a magical nature or those that are a natural ability of a Spirit-imbued creature, such as a toy or minion of the Boogeyman.

Action Figure
Always ready for combat and looking to solve most problems with violence, action figures are usually the front line of any battle with the minions of the Boogeyman. When they are awakened they have extensive military training and skills, and most action figures come with an array of weapons, backpacks, and vehicles. Action figures

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Tiny Terrors
Constructive
Constructives are in many ways the oddest of the toy types. They are essentially piles of living toy blocks and accoutrements that are able to reorganize themselves to fit different situations. Each Constructive has a humanoid figure of some type that serves as the focus of the intelligence and Spirit of the constructive. As long as that figure remains the constructive lives and may absorb more blocks into his "body" to replace lost ones. Constructives are the thinkers and builders of the toy world, always ready with an intricate trap or gadget to save the day. Constructives are the most flexible of toy types, being able to serve as a fortress, vehicle, or a ladder in rapid succession. They usually lack in people skills and do not possess impressive physical abilities, but their true strength lies in their many components. Toy Type Traits: Constructives hare the following toy type traits. Creature Type: Construct Size: Small Constructives gain a +1 size bonus to Defense, a +1 size bonus on Attack rolls, and a +4 size bonus to Hide checks. They take a -4 penalty on grapple checks. Their lifting and carrying limits are three quarters of those of a Medium-size character. Constructives must use two hands to wield a Medium-size weapon, and light weapons for them are Tiny or smaller. Ability Modifiers: +2 Intelligence, +2 Dexterity, -2 Strength, -2 Charisma Speed: 20 inches. Accessory Feat List: Accessory Toy, Backpack, Blindsight, Builder Blocks, Darkvision, Die Cast Construction, Increased Ability, Lights, Locomotion, Low Light Vision, Melee Weapon, Size, Speed, Tools, Well Known. Class Skills: Constructives gain all of the following skills as class skills: Craft (All), Knowledge (Physical Sciences), Knowledge (Technology), Repair. Block Body (Ex): In addition to their humanoid body, constructives can control and use a number of building blocks or other construction toys, building them into structures, vehicles, and other items in a remarkably short time. Vehicles built by a constructive out of his blocks move without a motor and can fly as long as they have wings attached regardless of aerodynamics. Each of a constructive's blocks has a block point value, listed below along with a description of the block type. These blocks can be combined to create useable devices , requiring a full round action for

each block involved in the device and provoking attacks of opportunity. Each block device's abilities are determined by the blocks that make it up. A constructive may automatically control his devices, using whatever feats or skills would normally be used in doing so as long as he is in physical contact with it, but others may only use a constructive block device if the device includes a control block. A constructive gains a +4 bonus to all skill checks involving its block devices. Multiple constructives can combine their blocks into a single device. Block devices have a hardness of 5 unless upgraded with armor blocks. The size of a block device is found using the following table. Constructive devices follow all the normal rules for object size. Number of Blocks 1 2-3 4-8 9-17 18-33 34+ Size Small Medium Large Huge Gargantuan Colossal

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Tiny Terrors
Blocks
Arm Block Point Value: 3 A mechanical version of a humanoid arm, it has a Strength of 16 and a Dexterity equal to that of the constructive controlling it. This block may be used multiple times in the same device to provide multiple arms, or may be combined in a single arm, each additional arm block increasing its Strength by +2. Each arm block added to a block device adds +5 hit points to the device's total hit points. Armor Block Point Value: 2 Each armor block increases the device's hardness by +1. Communication Block Point Value: 1 Communication blocks allow users to communicate via radio to other communication blocks or walkie talkies within a 5,000 in. range. If multiple communication blocks are built into a block device each additional block doubles the range. Computer Block Point Value: 3 This small block allows the constructive to access the same functions as powerful computer, gaining a +4 bonus on Computer use rolls and allowing the constructive to link into non-toy computers and computer networks through wireless or wired connections. Controls Block Point Value: 2 Controls allow any toy with the appropriate feats and skills to operate the block device. Any block device with wheels falls under the Surface Vehicle Operation (Block Device) feat while block devices with wings fall under the Aircraft Operation (Block Device) feat. Weapons block devices are under the Exotic Firearms Proficiency (Block Device) or Exotic Melee Weapons Proficiency (Block Device). Deflector Block Point Value: 2 A block device with this block gains acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic resistance 5. Additional deflector blocks add an additional type of energy resistance or increase an existing energy resistance by +5.

Engine Block Point Value: 2 Each engine block doubles the speed of a block vehicle, be it winged or wheeled vehicle. A vehicle can have no more engines than wheels or wings. Each engine block adds +5 hit points to any block device it is added to. Legs Block Point Value: 3 This block is a pair of legs that can be used for locomotion, having a speed of 30 in. A device must have one leg block for each structure block it possesses. Additional legs beyond the number required increase the device's speed by +10 in. per leg block, up to 60 in. Each leg block adds +5 hit points to any block device it is added to. Melee Weapon Block Point Value: 3 A melee weapon block is some manner of cutting, bashing, or piercing weapon attached to a block device. This is normally done in conjunction with an arm so the weapon may be swung, but sometimes block device wheeled vehicles include lances for ramming attacks. A melee weapon block is considered a Small weapon that inflicts 1d6 points of bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage with a 19-20/x2 critical. Melee weapons have 10 hit points and hardness equal to that of the block device they are a part of (or 5 if the melee weapon is not part of a block device). Additional blocks may be spent on the melee weapon block to upgrade its abilities and each additional block allows one of the following upgrades to be added to the weapon.. Each of the following options may be used up to 5 times to upgrade the melee weapon block. Melee weapon blocks fall under the Exotic Melee Weapon Proficiency (Block Devices) feat. +1 equipment bonus to damage or attack rolls. Increase one size level, increasing the damage accordingly (1d8 to 1d10, 1d10 to 2d6, etc.). Reduce the weapon one size level without reducing damage. Increase Reach 5 inches Grant a +2 bonus to Disarm or Trip attacks. Increase the critical range or multiplier by +1. Increase the hit points of the melee weapon by +10. Ranged Weapon Block Point Value: 3 Representing anything from a pistol to a massive artillery piece, the ranged weapon block covers all manner of distance weapons for block

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