Saturday, 21 December 2019

The why of temples

Temples feature in a lot of adventures, but it's often the temple of mumble which was built by the priests of mumblecough to serve the function of hey look over there.

Here's a set of tables that can randomly generate a temple, including its background, physical features, reasons a party of adventurers might be interested in it and reasons why no-one has looted it before them.

This temple is set:

  1. On a hill
  2. In a valley
  3. Overlooking a bay
  4. In a mountain pass
  5. In a cave
  6. On an island

It's a:

  1. Single-room chapel
  2. Small church with priest quarters
  3. Small chapel complex with priest and guest quarters
  4. Multi-building grounds with workshops and a staff
  5. Temple complex with cloisters, schools and dedicated farms
  6. Holy city with a permanent population of citizens and businesses

It was built to:

  1. House the bones of a saint
  2. Provide accommodation for pilgrims
  3. Seal an evil portal/hostile entity
  4. Prepare for the return of a living god
  5. Act as a base for a religious crusade
  6. Train clerics and war priests

Its distinctive feature was:

  1. A sacrificial altar
  2. A library and scriptorium
  3. A treasure vault
  4. An armoury
  5. Extensive catacombs
  6. A reliquary housing an ancient artefact

Its distinctive architecture is:

  1. A bell tower 
  2. A cloister
  3. A necropolis
  4. Statues
  5. Stained glass windows
  6. A labyrinth mosaic

Its state is:

  1. Abandoned and empty
  2. Used as a headquarters by bandits
  3. Used as a den by wild animals
  4. Inhabited by monsters
  5. Operational but barred to outsiders
  6. Re-occupied by a cult or opposing religion

Its walls are:

  1. Overgrown and half-buried
  2. In ruins
  3. Pristine
  4. Soot-stained
  5. Rebuilt
  6. Carved with ominous bas-reliefs

An unexpected threat here is:

  1. Angry spirits
  2. Wandering undead
  3. Animated statues
  4. Cursed objects
  5. Weakened floor/roof supports
  6. Disease

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