Saturday, 10 October 2020

Starting situation generator

Mounted knight
Tables for instantly generating the bones of a simple adventure. 

Sometimes you want to start with the action and figure out the why of things later. Especially if it's a pick-up game with little or no prep time, you want to play now, plan later. 

With the tables below, you can throw down a set of polyhedral dice and instantly have enough background info to start in media res.

The party is (D4):

  1. fighting with
  2. negotiating with
  3. hiding from
  4. chasing

a group of (D6):

  1. guards
  2. mercenaries
  3. zealots
  4. intelligent monsters
  5. unintelligent monsters
  6. beasts

in a (D8):

  1. city street
  2. dungeon 
  3. wilderness
  4. crypt
  5. temple
  6. mansion
  7. ship
  8. tower

because (D10):

  1. something has been stolen
  2. someone has been taken
  3. an offence must be punished
  4. a plague must be cured
  5. a curse must be broken
  6. a bounty is on offer
  7. a sentence must be commuted
  8. a prophecy has been spoken
  9. an oath has been sworn
  10. a debt is owed

 and if they fail (D12):

  1. a debt will default.
  2. they will be cursed.
  3. they will be outlawed.
  4. a bounty will be placed on them.
  5. an ally/family member will be harmed.
  6. an allied faction will be weakened.
  7. a crime will go unpunished.
  8. a regime will fall.
  9. a war will begin.
  10. their home will be destroyed.
  11. an opportunity will be lost.
  12. an enemy will be empowered.
The theme for this adventure is (D20):
  1. betrayal.
  2. the generosity of honourable enemies.
  3. competition with another party of adventurers.
  4. a generation-spanning grudge.
  5. insidious, creeping evil.
  6. a race against time.
  7. conspirators in every shadow.
  8. revenge.
  9. defending the weak.
  10. reclaiming a heritage.
  11. exploration.
  12. impending disaster.
  13. righteous vs despotic monarchs.
  14. revealing treachery.
  15. the gods are angry.
  16. babysitting.
  17. keeping up an act.
  18. acting with stealth.
  19. allies in unlikely places.
  20. forbidden knowledge.

 


(Thanks to Spwack of the Slight Adjustments blog for the generator code.)

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