#random-tables — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #random-tables, aggregated by home.social.
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I collected a bit about the different types of tables for different purposes in RPGs as I work on a new supplement.
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RPGaDAY2025 – Day 6 – Motive
What’s #RPGaDAY2025 ? See the details here.
Day 6 – Motive
Leo O’Bannion: You’d do anything to help your friends, like you’d do anything to kick your enemies.
Tom Reagan: Wrong, Leo. You do things for a reason.
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
A lot of RPGs have random tables to determine the reaction of NPCs. They don’t generally tell you what their motivation for that reaction is.
Most prepared NPCs will already have basic motivations, but at the table, sometimes new characters appear suddenly, and you need to create a motivation quickly. Here’s a set of random tables that might help. They don’t specify what a NPC will do, they just suggest an idea of why they’re doing it.
To begin, roll a d4 (the worst polyhedral die…) for the basic motivation, and then roll again on the appropriate sub-table for the NPCs specific motivation.
Basic Motivation (d4)
- Economic
- Political
- Personal
- Artistic
Economic (d4)
- Wants Money from PCs
- Owes Money to someone, needs PCs to help
- Looking to hire PCs
- Looking for work from PCs
Political (d4)
- Opposed to PCs activities or existence
- Supporters of PCs activities or existence
- Wants to convert the PCs to her ideology or faith
- Wants to convince the PCs to abandon their ideology or faith
Personal (d4)
- Hates a PC for good reason
- Hates a PC based on a mistaken notion
- Loves a PC
- Idolizes and wants to impress a PC
Artistic (d4)
- Wants to paint/sculpt one or more PCs
- Wants one or more PCs to be a muse
- Interested in the exploits of the PCs as source material
- Thinks the PCs stand in the way of her artistic vision.
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When The Walls Fall Review – Fallen Cities and Falling Dice
The ancient city was originally founded as a place of study; a great library was its first building, and it remained ever its heart. However, the city grew to form the core of an unspeakable ritual, powered by harnessing a long forgotten god. Eventually, its distant neighbors could not tolerate the ideas it was spreading, and they attacked. That was when the walls fell, leaving a ruined city with a defaced statue at its heart... and broken roads, spreading corruption, and fanatics of that forgotten god bleeding out of it into the countryside... […]https://cannibalhalflinggaming.com/2024/12/23/when-the-walls-fall-fallen-cities-and-falling-dice/
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LB(https://botsin.space/@botwikirandomfediverse/113315099998716767)
Well written #ttrpg random tables make astonishingly good tracery bots.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and there’s a handful that I’ve been tempted to convert myself, but up until now have been too busy working on my other bots.
Anyone out there want to offer up their darlings as tribute? I’ll do all the conversion and hosting, but give you credit, natch - I just want to see these really cool things out in the world.
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#OSR people who love #RandomTables - consider to spend some bucks on the #DreadThingonomicon which has plenty of such tables: https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Thingonomicon
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Fun with #RandomTables
Occult Materials (d12)
1 Adamant (Adamantine)
2 Aether (Quintessence, the Fifth Element)
3 Atlantisite (Atlantean Crystal)
4 Cold Iron
5 Hihiirokane (Scarlet Steel, "flame-colored metal")
6 Maban (Shaman's Quartz)
7 Meteoric Iron (Thunderbolt Iron)
8 Mithril (True Silver)
9 Orichalcum (Aurichalcum, "gold copper")
10 Phlogiston
11 Xirang ("breathing earth")
12 Yliaster (Hyle+Astrum, "prime matter") -
You might have noticed that most of the links I put in those link posts are the ones I have come across during the week and posted on my dice.camp account. Here they are collected, and expanded with other things I come across.
Crafting
The Rohan House Paper Model (papermau)
Avast! Ye Lubbers: A Pirate Ship in 28mm [Part 1] and Arrr! A Buxom Beauty: A Pirate Ship in 28mm [Part 2] (Wargaming.info)
Cardboard Medieval Style House (papermau)
GM Advice
Skeleton With a Bow (Methods & Madness) is an interesting discussion of monsters used in non-standard ways
Recreation Time in the Hobby (Gnome Stew) says things about when our hobby is recreation and when it is work that sometimes needs to be said
Character Motivation is the Player’s Responsibility (Lich van Winkle) discusses that not everything is the DM’s task
Running Mysteries: The Two Types of Leads (The Alexandrian)
Starting a Sandbox Campaign part 1 and part 2 (Dungeon Master’s Handbook Podcast)
House Rules
Flexible Reaction Rolls (Blessings of the Dice Gods) modifies the reaction rolls. I always like tinkering with that
Stone Encumbrance: Detail & Example (Delta’s D&D Hotspot) is a classic that I am using in my own house rules
Minimalist encumbrance/slots (B/X) (Methods & Madness) has a few ideas I might want to add to my game
Monster
Draugr (The Other Side)
Random Tables
d100 Construction Delays for your Bastion or Stronghold (Elfmaids & Octopi)
Snowbound Hex Generator (The Ideocron of the Oracular Somnabulist)
Sargasso Sea Encounter Generator (The Ideocron of the Oracular Somnabulist)
Other
The minimalist beauty of D&D’s “Dragon Quest Game” (Methods & Madness) goes into an obscure introductory game for D&D, which made me think: maybe we should put together a print-out package of paper minis, dungeon tiles, and some simple rules to get people into the hobby?
objet trouve one-page dungeon (homicidally inclined persons of no fixed address) uses a bit of old propaganda for a dungeon
A Year Atop A Woolly Mammoth (Wyrd Fish) gives us this quote:
“This mix of slow, ponderous friendship and network building approach is perfect for how I want to exist and hobby online. I’m emotionally invested in seeing how other folks I’ve met through the Hobbyverse are getting on – both personally and with their hobby projects. There’s really nothing as satisfying as getting to know someone with a common interest, watching them think a project through out loud online, and then watch their journey through to the end point.”
Rate this:
https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/11/06/a-miscellany-of-links-pt-vii/
#crafting #dnd #Links #monster #randomTables #Roleplaying #ttrpg
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Some more elfmaids and octopi goodness
d100 Elf Clan Missions
http://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2023/10/d100-elf-clan-missions.html -
Taught a teen and adult workshop of #fantasyquestcartooning at the #northfairoakslibrary as part of the 2023 Peninsula Libraries Comic Arts Fest (#PLCAF) #smclibraries!
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For Fantasy Quest Cartooning, I used some #randomtables and #rpg concepts to draw characters.If you would like a similar class and are in the sf-bay area, contact me.
#drawing #art #fantasy #libraryrocks #teens #adults #teensworkshop #fantasy #quest
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NEW VOIDSPIRAL GAME IN BETA! #TheLostSoulBlues
https://www.patreon.com/posts/25324954
Think Diablo meets Conan, only the demons are the PCs.
