I had a first-time player join late into my mid-level Shadowdark campaign this past week. Not only has he never played Shadowdark, but he has never played a TTRPG, so I started him with an immovable rod.
Before the first session, he had been poring over the books, reading how to play and trying to figure out how all the mechanics worked. And even as a simplified game, it still felt a little overwhelming to him — a widespread experience. I gave him all the standard old school musings, “don’t worry about the rules, just say what your character would want to do,” “the game is about rulings, not the rules,” etc. But I think the immovable rod is what really helps illustrate the old-school mantra. But don’t get me wrong — he definitely scratched his head when he read the description — but when the party suggested using it to tie a rope to and climb down a pit, it started to click.
Naturally, the question, “What else can you do with this thing?” followed. To which I gave a quick list of examples, along with the explanation that if it seems feasible, it probably would work. It is a tool of creativity, not rules, and that’s why it's so cool. It is the tool for teaching people how to solve OSR-style puzzles (even though it didn’t appear in D&D until later).
But the question still stands: What can you do with an immovable rod? Here are 51 things I came up with quickly. And they are just the beginning. I know there are more I have used in the past that aren’t on this list.
51 answers to the question “What can I do with the immovable rod?”
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As a fulcrum
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As an anchor
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As a pull-up bar
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As a door jam
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To pin something or someone down
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To hang food above a camp
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To create a foothold
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To jam a portcullis
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To quickly anchor a tripline
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To slow a moving vehicle
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As a club
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To fake levitating
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To create a swinging rope (placing it with mage hand)
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To jam a gear or some other mechanism
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To set a trap (rolling boulder, click to release)
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To stop a fall (you still need to get down)
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To hold a tower shield up and create a barrier
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To propel a boat by pulling against the rod, then releasing the button
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To trip someone chasing you
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To bend something around
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To hold up half of a hammock
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To brace a wall
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To bar a gate
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To prop up a corpse and fake an inhabitant
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To hold a prisoner (tie them up and hold them in the air by their ankles.
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To hold a flag
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To temporarily stop a falling ceiling or sliding wall
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As a brace for a crossbow or rifle
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To stabilize yourself when walking around a short ledge
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To stabilize a rope bridge swaying in the wind
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To position a mirror to peek around a corner
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To hitch a horse
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To make a tent with a tarp or a blanket
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To hold debris in a river to slow its flow
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Like a parking brake on a wagon to keep it from rolling down a hill
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Like a cross-country ski pole, to pull yourself across the ground
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To hold a trapdoor in the floor open or closed
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To hang meat above a pit, setting a trap for a beast
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As a makeshift spit, hanging meat over an open fire
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To bar a window, making entrance through it difficult
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To hold up a table with a missing leg
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To hang wet clothes out to dry
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To hold a lamp up in the air
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To stop someone from sinking in quicksand
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To tap the floor, checking for traps
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To get extra leverage with a crowbar, to lift a door or a heavy object
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To hold up clothing stuffed with hay, making a scarecrow
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To stop sliding down a chute trap
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To stop a rampaging beast (secured to a lasso)
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To make scaffolding to stand on (place a plank across two rods at equal height)
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To hold pressure on a pressure plate
Looking for OSR-style puzzles for your game?
I recently published a free (for a limited time) puzzle dungeon called “Sven Ghouli’s Crypt” as a part of the forthcoming Puzzle Dungeon Jam. It’s a level 1-2 puzzle dungeon for Shadowdark with an ancient vampire theme.
Grab Sven Ghouli’s Crypt on itch.io
