Quickie Dice Tool v. 2.2

I've updated the Quickie Dice Tool. Mostly, this adds the version number to the sheet, to make it easier for people to tell whether they have the most up-to-date version or not. There is also a set up index numbers from 7 to 12 below the charts in the middle. This is so that you can opt to roll a d12 and use any of the 12 columns to interpret either the top edge or left edge numeric scales, for a really wide variety of results using only one die.

The right edge has a new scale, located just above the ability score name. This is the four core classes, plus Peasant and Noble, for when you need a simpler random NPC result. You can also use this to mean "an action that a person of this class would typically do" or "a place where a person of this class would typically be found." When used this way, "Peasant" can indicate any basic bodily need or action, or a place where such a need could be fulfilled, like a tavern, inn, or outhouse. "Noble" can indicate parties, festivals, or social events.

Also, there was a weird problem with the shading not showing up in previous versions I uploaded to Google Docs. It looks like the problem is fixed in this upload, but let me know.

For those new to the blog: print out the sheet, drop a die on it, and look for which row and column the die lands in, in addition to the result on the die itself. For some of the many, many uses of this technique, check out the "quickie" label on this blog.

Quickie Dice Tool: Legends

I plan on doing a full document explaining the Quickie Dice Tool, of course. It should be much easier with the new version. I've already done some diagrams illustrating what the different labels in different positions mean.

The bold letters in the column labels (top edge) and the row labels (left edge) are used as initials of adjectives, verbs and nouns to inspire ideas for dungeon dressing; if you can't think of a word that begins with one of the initials, the index number behind the letters can be used to look up words from the central lists.

Row labels have a variety modifier in the upper left corner of each box (acid, dry, twisted, quivering, etc.) These are meant as descriptive modifiers for geography, but can be used to describe other items as well. In the lower left corner of each box are two other labels: the first line is a creature category that defines generic monster forms, while the second line is a type of territory (defined as how nearby people interpret or use a geographical area.) Note that both creatures and territories can be of the "enchanted" type, so only one label is printed here.

Column labels have an action type printed vertically in the lower right corner of each box (break, empty, throw, etc.) These can provide general guidelines for what an object does or a monster is doing; they can be replaced with conceptually similar actions or any action beginning with one of the initials, if the listed verb makes no sense in the context.

The column labels across the bottom edge are printed vertically in the upper right corner of each box. The first word is a color, the second is a material category; either can be used as descriptive modifiers for various kinds of dungeon dressing. The bottom edge also has index numbers, which can be used to emulate a d6-1 dice roll; if you read the zero as a six, it becomes a standard d6 result of 1 to 6. This can be read as a column index for the central lists.

The row labels across the right edge have an equipment category printed in the upper left corner of each box, instead of a variety modifier. This can used as a simpler, broader alternative to the object lists in the center. "Armor" is assumed to be any defensive equipment, so it can be broadened to fur parkas or gas masks, if these seem appropriate; "Travel" equipment includes climbing or riding gear as well as vehicles; "Light and Senses" covers not just torches and lamps, but anything that improves detection, such as a stethoscope. The lower right corner is labeled with the six standard abilities, which can be used to indicate what an NPC excels at, what ability is penalized by a poison or disease, or many other uses.

Quickie Dice Tool v 2.1

Just a quick post to let anyone who downloaded the Quickie Dice Tool that I updated it to v2.1, so you may want to download it again. This includes the correction to the list of Variety modifiers, which has been relocated to the left edge, and the addition of a Labyrinth column, for subterranean features. Also, I corrected some minor layout issues, including some problems with borders.

The underworld features focus on broad structural effects:

1. Cavern: A rough, natural cave system of some kind.
2. Exit: Stairs, an upward ramp, or some other connection to either the outside or another area.
3. Tomb: An enclosure for the dead, or possibly for a monster that has been deliberately entombed.
4. Quarry: Any excavated area, either a mine or construction in progress.
5. Vault: Any large chamber or network of chambers designed to protect contents.
6. Sewer: Abandoned, or in service, wet or dry; possibly originally a canal system, rather than a sewer, but now filthy.
7. Maze: Twisty passages, all alike. This may be a simple network of tunnels with confusing branches, or it may be large and sprawling.
8. Hole: A pit straight down, optionally with a ladder or spiral staircase leading to another level.
9. Gate: Some kind of entryway, perhaps with a portcullis, double doors, or other blockable portal.
10. Rubble: A collapsed room or tunnel. If adventurers can get past the blockage, they may find other features.

Quickie Dice Tool v2.0

Here is the updated version (2.0) of the quickie dice tool, a dice map (aka "drop-dice chart") useful for improvising details during play or for inspiration during prep. Almost all the changes mentioned in the v2.0 planning post are included. Unless I set the print size way too small to be useful, I don't think I can add extra lists; however, I was able to number the rows and columns as planned, which makes it easy to describe how to use the tool.

The right-hand side of the tool now has the six abilities and six item categories. This makes the tool more useful for NPC or found item generation: roll 1d6 interpret as people (horizontal) + highest ability (vertical,) with a result of 5+ on the die indicating the exotic column for people instead of the ordinary one; simultaneously roll 3d4 and interpret each die as material (horizontal) + item category (vertical) to quickly equip the NPC.

The table labeled "Suggested Dice Interpretations" is designed so that you can roll any die (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20) and read a result of 1 from the row labeled "Low" and a max result from the row labeled "High"; intermediate results use the row labeled "Medium". Use whichever column seems appropriate for your current needs.

After I check this version for errors and write up a separate key, I can release the updated dice map.

Edit: Found one error so far. The "Kelp Fields" entry in the Water Features column was accidentally split across two columns, replacing the "Hazy" result that should be in line 8 of the Variety column.

Speaking of which, I'm thinking of moving the Variety results to the top left corner of the boxes along the left side of the sheet, making room for a Subterranean Features column in the lists.

Edit 4/18/2012: Link should now point to version 2.2, with even more functionality.

Plans for the Quickie Dice Tool

I've started working on version 2.0 of the Quickie Dice Tool. The primary changes I'm planning are:

1. Merge the right side of the page with the left, and add numbers; this leaves the right side free for a different vertical scheme.
2. Swap the top and bottom; this change is meant to support the next one...
3. Add letters and numbers as grey background to the (new) top scale; this makes it easier to label (top left corner is "1 ABC" on two different axes.)
4. Renumber the (new) bottom scale (color and material) to 0-5; again, this makes it easier to label (bottom left corner is "0".)
5. Rearrange the lists in the middle a bit, and number the rows and columns to make them easier to use with the (now-) numbered rows and columns.
6. Minor font and layout changes; key may wind up on a separate sheet.

I plan on adding a few other lists; for example, an animal parts list and a subterranean features list. I also plan on adding the six ability scores, probably along the (now-) empty right side, to ultimately replace the old Ability dice map and add more potential dice keys. For example, you could roll up smart berserkers or charming slaves with a single roll.

Since I'm in the process of rewriting it anyways, now's the time to make any suggestions about what you'd like to see or what you think would work.

Quickie Dice Tool: Events and History

The previous posts on the quickie dice tool focused on nouns: how to roll for random people, places, and things. This post will focus instead on events.

I've already mentioned one way to roll for a random event: you can roll d4 + 3d6 to generate descriptions of ceremonies or other ritual behavior, with the d4 representing the character who must take action and each d6 representing one action that character must take; the numerical result on each d6 describes the order of the action. This process can be generalized to other events; if you have an invasion or influx of migrants or refugees, a quick d4 + 3d6 roll determines who they are and what they are going to do. Likewise, a 3d4 roll with vertical position interpreted as a beast, horizontal position interpreted as behavior, and numerical result of each d4 interpreted as season (fall, winter, spring, summer) gives you notable animal behaviors for the year, which could prompt some adventure opportunities. ("Why are the moose throwing themselves off a cliff this winter? Let's investigate! Or harvest some furs!")

A similar trick is to roll 3d6, with each d6 interpreted in order as a territory roll, to figure out the general history of a region. You may have a currently ruined area which used to be a town, but which was overrun by an influx of nomads.

A more elaborate approach would be to merge this process with the sketchy random history technique I described some time ago. There are a total of 12 lists in the middle of the sheet, so you could number them 1 through 12. Roll a d12 + 4d20 on the sheet:

1. The d12 is the founding event for the region's dominant culture. Numerical result = list to use for interpreting vertical position; horizontal position = behavior or material, whichever seems more interesting.
2. A d20 result of 1 to 12 is an event in recent history (about 100, 75, and 50 years ago, in any order desired.) Interpret position as for founding event.
3. A d20 result of 13+ is a major shaping event. Interpret the vertical and horizontal position as for a Territory roll. Record the events in numerical order, with the last event occurring about 200 years ago and other events occurring further in the past, in 200-year increments; dice that match indicate events that happen around the same time, give or take a few years.
4. If there are no major shaping events, the culture has lasted about 200 years. Otherwise, add 200 years to the relative date of the oldest shaping event to get the total duration of the culture (400 to 1000 years.)
5. For current local events, follow up with a separate 3d20 roll and remove any dice results of 13+, then interpret as for founding events or recent history.

Note that these rolls use all 12 of the lists on the sheet, including the land and water geographical lists. This seems appropriate to me, since the sudden appearance of a geyser or forest can represent magical events. If this seems too far-fetched, though, all results of 11 or higher can be treated as major shaping events, using the Territory list instead of geographical features.

The twelfth list, labeled as "Descriptive", is meant to describe changes to geography, weather, or flora in the area. It can help determine miscellaneous events like earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. When used to describe events, it's probably best to combine this with the Material interpretation for horizontal dice position; thus, you can have rainstorms or tidal waves of acid, or animals twisted into grotesque forms.

Quickie Dice Tool: Terrain and Territory

In addition to random generation of NPCs, monsters, and objects found in dungeons, the quickie dice tool has a couple lists dedicated to describing geographical landmarks or regions, wild or inhabited. This can be used to roll up a quick description of some unmapped, legendary land when characters find maps or scrolls, or as a tool for mapping out a region hex by hex, either during prep or during play.

The geographical rolls are divided into two basic types: terrain and territory. Terrain rolls describe the physical characteristics of a location' the procedure is similar to rolls for basic beasts, but using a list of Land features or Water features in place of the Beast list. The horizontal position sets the color of the feature, so that you can have red deserts, blue canyons, or a black lake. For more exotic geographical features, you can substitute Material for Color, or perhaps a mix of the two; if the d6 roll is even use color, and if it is odd, use material. Keep in mind that the exotic option has the potential to make really weird geographical features; a hill of glass is pretty unusual, but a glacier of flesh is even more so. You may wish to limit such exotic features to limited regions.

The d6 roll can also be used to set the rough size of the geographical feature. In general, this means that if you are rolling for the contents of a single hex, the default size of the feature is also one hex, on whatever scale you happen to be using. The extreme lowest and highest results on the d6 change the size; on a 1, the feature is smaller than normal, with the bulk of the hex being a different geographical type (rolled separately, or based on bordering geography;) on a 6, the feature is larger than normal, either twice as wide and three times as long, or roll 2d6 for the length in hexes for each dimension, whichever seems more appropriate. If you want to combine the size roll with the even/odd rule given above for ordinary versus exotic geography, note that all features smaller than one hex will be exotic and all multi-hex features will just be standard features in various colors. This helps avoid mountain ranges made of flesh or glass, in case you don't want exotic geography to dominate the map.

Alternative dice rolls are possible. By default, you pick whether a feature is land or water and use the appropriate list. You can, however, roll a d4, with a 50/50 chance for either list, or only use the 50/50 roll for the first hex of a fresh hex map; other hexes would be weighted towards the same general geographical type as their bordering hexes. One approach:

1-2 Same type as border hex, or majority of border hexes.

3 Same type as border hex, but different Material instead of Color

4 Opposite type (coastline or river bank,) different Color

In contrast to the purely physical aspects of the terrain roll, the territory roll describes how humans (or the dominant intelligent race) use the region. You won't roll this for every hex on a map; the territory roll is used for urban hexes or their bordering hexes, with everything beyond that either uninhabited wilderness or another settled area. The vertical position of the die determines how the territory is used; some of the results, such as a forbidden zone, ruins, or a battlefield, won't normally have a population, and nomad lands will be very sparsely populated. The horizontal position can provide a quick guide to what the buildings, if any, look like, using either the material or the color. The result of the d6 roll is a rough population size, with 1 (small) indicating a hermit or very small campsite and a 6 (large) indicating a city. It's possible to switch this to a d8, using the 8 for cities, so that you can roll territory and terrain simultaneously. A more elaborate method would be to roll three dice: a d6 for terrain and size, a d8 for territory type and population size, and a d4 to determine whether the area is mundane (use colors) or exotic (use materials,) as described earlier. The position of the d4 can add a little more description to the roll; for example, it could determine the dominant class or inhabitant type, or the primary economic activity. It could also be used for current events, but there will be more on that in a future post.

Quickie Dice Tool: Monsters

"Monsters", either in the general sense of dangerous creatures or the more specialized sense of unnatural beasts with freakish appearance and fantastic powers, are usually in pretty high demand. Even a GM who sticks to tried-and-true published monster lists wants a little variety every now and then, and more daring GMs want a unique monster for every dungeon or locale. In addition, animal rolls can be used to build compound meaningful names for people, towns, or taverns, or to determine the shape of a statue, or the main food source of a village, or ingredients in a potion, or many other things.

The default roll for a random beast is a single d4 or other die, with the vertical position read as the first letter of an animal name and the horizontal position read as the color variant. By default, the color of the beast is just that: color; however, some colors may be more useful as camouflage in some environments, while others may be more valuable as trophies; when looking for animals with medicinal uses, there could be a 1 in 6 chance that this particular variety can be used to heal whatever condition you are looking to cure. Also, you can link each new color of beast to a different animal behavior or immunity; the white beasts may be resistant to cold, the green beasts might live in the tops of trees. One suggestion: give a 1 in 6 chance for each color that this particular variety of beast has an ability associated with the material listed below that color.

• Green: Arboreal, attacks by surprise from above
• Red: Aggressive, does +1 damage
• White: Fragile, has one less hit die
• Gold: Tough, has improved armor class
• Blue: Aquatic, swims at double speed
• Black: Burrower, digs through earth at half speed.

The default d4 also indicates whether the creature is vermin, ordinary, or predatory. Ordinary beasts are exactly like their real-world base form, with herbivores being dangerous if threatened. Vermin are much smaller and more of a threat to food supplies, non-metallic equipment, or defenseless casualties. Predatory beasts can be a surprising variant, if the base animal is not normally a predator; if it *is* normally predatory, the altered version is a larger, cunning man-eater. Alternatively, use the d4 result to indicate which column to use of the four beast columns (standard, exotic, common, other) instead of picking an arbitrary column or restricting the result to a specific column.

Instead of a d4, you can also use a d6, either as a size roll (small, medium, large) or to indicate which body part is abnormal. Thus, you could get a Blue Elephant with some kind of head modification (on a 6 result,) which might mean a horned elephant; a roll of 2 for a Black Tiger might indicate ridiculously elongated legs.

All of these are fairly normal beasts; using Material instead of Color can create creatures that are borderline supernatural. Flesh as a material would indicate a standard beast of the type rolled; Wood might be a plant in the shape of a beast, or a beast with woody tendrils sprouting from its body. Liquid might represent a creature that can change into water to escape or ambush, or it can be changed into an ice creature.

The more abstract monster roll is to read the vertical position as a general monster type and the horizontal position as its attack form or other behavior. The monster types focus on general features: avians fly, enchanted creatures have magic powers, incorporeal creatures are mists or spirits, fiends are supernatural outsiders or extra-planar entities, undead are evil re-animated corpses, shapeless monsters are slimes or mimics, plants are usually mindless and stationary, hybrids are two or more beasts mixed together, golems are manufactured, reptiles are scaled and presumed to be more like dinosaurs or dragons than standard reptiles. Combined with the attack behaviors, you can get some fairly varied fantastic creatures; spirits that grapple and paralyze, plants that throw thorns, zombies that grow in size as they add corpses to their bodies.

Several of these types require additional rolls for powers or other details. For example, a hybrid creature is part of one beast mixed with part of another. One of the rolls can be a d6, interpreted as the point where the two beasts join. You can have a turtle with the head of a boar, or a toad with a snake's tail.

For an extremely varied monster, roll three dice all at once: d10, d4, and d6.

• Read the d10 as generic monster type + material, looking up the d10 result itself as a behavior (using the numbers across the bottom of the page;)
• Read the d4 as basic animal type (d4 result = column) plus color;
• Read the d6 as appropriate for the monster type indicated by the d10 roll (power of enchanted creature, second animal of hybrid, extra details, (in)vulnerabilities, etc.)

Millions of monsters, at your fingertips!

Quickie Dice Tool: Dungeon Dressing

More tricks and examples of how to use the quickie dice tool. One of the most frequent reasons I have for rolling random details is to answer dungeon dressing questions. "No monster, treasure or trap in this room, but completely empty rooms are boring. What's in this room?" Or: " What's in these crates?" Or: "What kind of statue is in the middle of the fountain?"

The basic idea behind all the dungeon dressing rolls is that the vertical position indicates the first letter of the name of the item. There are ten vertical positions, each with two consonants; also, you can use the vowels AEIOU in place of BDJFL, or Y instead of Z, if you can't think of a noun beginning with those consonants. Thus, if your mercenaries feel ho-hum because they are all swordsmen or spearmen or crossbowmen and you want some new ideas, assume the next squad you place has training in two weapons and roll two dice on the sheet; use the letters rolled as a hint for the name of a weapon: (battle)axe, dagger, trident, flail, lash, sickle, mace, hook, net, rapier... or any other weapon those letters make you think of.

Although you can create impromptu lists, like that weapon list, for any specific need, I included several premade lists in the center of the sheet, including a list of "Equipment" -- mostly items you would expect adventurers to carry (well, maybe not a mask...) while the "Object" list is a scattered sample of other items you might find in a room or at a market; there's also a list of materials you might find stored in crates or in bins at a merchant's stall.

The horizontal position of any dice you roll for dungeon dressing injects a little variety in these lists. Across the top are six colors that seemed to be the most useful, and six broad material categories. You can thus roll for "red armor" in a merchant's stall, and elaborate that as a maker of dyed leather armor, or a someone selling rusty plate, or maybe even reddish bronze scale mail. Combining a noun with one of the materials across the top can produce more exotic items, like a glass shield or a net made of flesh.

The result of the dice roll itself can be used for further details. The example given in the key is to use a d4 to represent the four classical elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire.) Object + color + element can result in some pretty exotic items, like The Shield of Green Water. Or the elements can be used as a guideline to other characteristics: Earth for heavy, dense items, Water for flexible items, Air for transparent items, Fire for shiny, sparkly or glowing items. Or the more rarified elements (Air, Fire) can represent gems and metal, with the color helping to specify the type (green metal for copper, white metal for silver, red gem for ruby.) The choice here depends on how fancy or arcane you would like the result to be.

Instead of a d4 elemental association, you can use a d6 body part association, combined with color + material, to specify types of clothing: red linen shoes, green bone gauntlets, black silk tunics. Or the d6 could be used as a size roll, with most items being average but a few being tiny or gigantic. Or you can improvise a d4 social status roll (peasant, tradesman, merchant, noble) to define the quality of goods found. Or divide the d6 roll by two to get a column number, so that you can use all three columns for items (Equipment, Object, Material) on a single roll.

Across the bottom of the page are the what I call the behaviors. These are verbs, selected mainly by the letters associated with each digit in Lewis Carroll's old cypher, but I did try to focus on active verbs describing a change of state, with only a couple exceptions like "hold" (although even that could be used to describe grappling, for example.) When used in combination with objects, these could signify:

• what you would normally do with the object (a tool for breaking things, a bag meant to be thrown;)
• what has been done to the object (an empty/blank scroll;)
• an item that is used to do something to an object (tools for making idols;)
• a place where an action is done to or with an object (the shop of barrel-fillers.)

In some cases, you may have to stretch the meaning of the verb; "empty" could also mean "dig", or "remove", "throw" could mean "send", "swing" could mean "move". In extreme cases, you can always substitute another verb that starts with the same letter, whatever comes to mind; after all, this is an inspiration tool, not a straight jacket. The behavior+object combination just seems like a really fast way to define things like room types or artifacts based on general function, rather than relying on large predefined lists.

One specific way to use the behaviors is for meaningful fantasy names. In addition to made-up names like "Dyarquel" or "Phyngor", fantasy characters often have names that look more like nicknames, like "Headcleaver" or "Axegrinder". The object list (or an impromptu list) plus the behavior list can be used for this kind of name. For example, if we use yesterday's 2d4 formula for dwarven first names, we can add a d6 to get a compound last name: vertical position is the first letter of a weapon name, horizontal position is the verb that follows; the verb can be changed slightly to fit the weapon or to increase the impact ("Axeshatter" instead of "Axebreak", "Speargut" instead of "Spearempty",) or a noun connected to the verb could be used ("Axebreaker", "Boltvolley", "Spearsnatcher".)

Similarly, the objects generated can be used in other abstract ways: tavern names ("The Fleshy Kettle", "The Scarlet Shield";) images in murals or paintings, either static or active ("the tapestry depicts a band of peasants lifting a giant mask above their heads";) principal exports of cities, or trade goods in high demand; topics of books found in a library.

Dungeon Dressing rolls will resurface in combination with other rolls in future posts.

Quickie Dice Tool: Names

I want to explore the many ways of using the quickie dice tool in more detail, starting with the simplest use: rolling random letters for fantasy names. The basic procedure, as described in the key, is to roll 2d4 to 4d4 on the tool to get a name of 4 to 8 letters; the dice are read in numerical order, based on their results. Each die's vertical position represents a consonant, read from either the left side or the right side of the sheet as you prefer; each die's horizontal position gives a vowel, read from the top of the sheet. The letters are read in consonant+vowel order by default, giving names like "Mavido" or "Lykora". If you roll two 1s, for example, then those two dice are read as a consonant cluster followed by a pair of vowels; if the consonant cluster looks hard to pronounce, as in "Mvaido", move one of the vowels to the front ("Amvido",) or insert an apostrophe and pronounce it with a short schwa-sound ("M'vaido".)

You can reverse these rules for forming syllables, reading the results in vowel+consonant order, for names derived from another culture. You can also set each culture to a different number of dice: two for halfling names, for example, giving names like "Mavi" or "Lyko". If you are rolling d4s, rolling 3 or 4 dice increases the chance of consonant clusters and rolling more than 4 dice guarantees clusters. On the other hand, you can use just 2 to 4 dice, but use larger dice to decrease the chance of consonant clusters. Elven names might follow a rule like "roll 3d20 of one color for the first name, 3d20 of another color for the last name, read in vowel+consonant order." This gives names like "Amivod Ylokar".

Another way to vary naming rules by culture is to add more specific prefixes or suffixes depending on the actual dice result. For example, you may decide that all dwarven first names end in "-d", "-n", or "-r". Roll 2d4 and read the letters in consonant+vowel order, then add a "-d" if both dice are odd, an "-n" if both dice are even, and an "-r" otherwise. This creates names like "Mavin" or "Lykor". On the other hand, you could roll 3d6 for orcish names, but only use the first vowel rolled, dropping the others, to create short names heavy in consonants.

The dice can be interpreted as more than just two-letter syllables, though. Consider what happens if you use the habitation type (on the right side) instead of one of the consonants; use the first part of the word as the entire first syllable of a name. Instead of a vowel, use part of the behavior (across the bottom) as the second syllable of the name. Each die rolled becomes a two-syllable name, so that the same roll that produced "Mavido" could have been interpreted instead as three names: "Pateen", "Legite", and "Enold", among other possibilities. Or, alternatively, use one die per syllable, replacing the vowel in the first part of the word rolled with the vowel rolled, which would create names like "Lyg", "Holl", or "Ran".

There's a way to get more meaningful names, but I'll cover that in a future post.

Quickie Dice Tool

Remember the old d20 Quickie Tables?

It took several posts to explain them all, and I uploaded two single-page PDFs that included all the tables (but not much explanation on how to use them.) I've always intended to go back and tweak some entries, then add both tables to unified document with full explanations and examples.

But as an experiment, I thought I'd try doing them as a dice map in the style of Zak S.'s "drop-dice" tables. And I got it all on one page! Some of the lists are compressed (I condensed the 28 entries for Events and Modifiers to terrain into a single list of 10 descriptions, for example.) But it's still tons of information.

The left and right margins contain the consonants, in the order that Lewis Carroll used in his mnemoic cypher. The vowels are across the top, digits from 1 to 0 are across the bottom. The directions are in the middle, upper right corner. The key -- what used to be the d20 formulas -- is in the upper left corner. The lower half of the instructions is a set of lists; if you can't think of the name of animal that starts with "L" or "V", just look those up in one of the lists. The order is the same as in the left and right margins, with the vowels AEIOU occasionally subbing for BDJFL.

Some explanations for the verbs/behaviors might be helpful: whenever necessary, you can substitute a different verb with the same conceptual effect. If you roll "Break Food"  as the behavior of a random monster, for example, you would probably change "Break" to "Rot" or "Spoil". "Empty" means "remove", "unload", "unpack"; you can use this for digging, for example. "Throw" can also be "Toss", or any ranged attack; "Swing" can be any melée attack or any general tool-use action. "Lift" can be expanded to moving or repositioning objects in general. "Grow", or any other verb for that matter, can be swapped for its opposite, if it seems appropriate. "Zero" not only represents the number zero, but "zero action", for those rare instances when you want a creature, trap, or other item that does absolutely nothing.

Similarly, the colors and materials can be modified when necessary. "Gold" can become "Yellow" or "Orange", "Earth" can be clay or sand, "Liquid" might merely mean wet.

The dice rolls are optimized so that you can roll multiple dice all at once. For example, you roll 2 to 4 d4s to get a name. Roll a d4 and a d6 to describe an NPC and what the NPC is doing (great for statues as well.) You can roll a d4 and a d6 to get a hybrid beast (like a gryphon, minotaur or pegasus.) It's easy to modify the key as well to suit special needs. You can, for example, roll a bunch of d6s instead of d4s for statues of "Egyptian"-style animal-human hybrid gods, to get results like "Jade statue of Toad-headed god" or "Clay statue of god with pig's feet."

Edit: There's an error in the key for "Monster". It direct you to use the top edge of the sheet for the monster's behavior, when you should, of course, use the bottom edge; the arrow is pointing in the wrong direction.

As previously mentioned, I wasn't able to get the PDF to work correctly after upload. This is a weird "feature" of Google Docs; sometimes, when you make a PDF on your computer and then upload it, some images in the PDF disappear inexplicably. The problem is that I added the key and lists sections as images, because it was easier to lay them out first in another app, then import them into Inkscape. I may be able to fix this later by re-doing the PDF in InDesign, but that takes a little more time. In the meantime, the image above redirects to a large PNG image, which makes the text a tiny bit blurry, but still readable.

Last-Minute GM: 20-Sided Traps

I've updated Table II of the 20-sided quickies so that the lines are evenly spaced and the entries for number ranges don't wrap. New link is here.

I've been thinking about traps lately. There's no formula for traps yet, although I've been testing some trap, trick and hazard formulas. There's also no column that specifically applies to traps, although Table II's Modifiers and Events can be used for basic trap behavior. So, a simple formula for a random trap could be d6 + d20, looking up the d20 result under Table II Modifiers/Events and using the following table for the d6:

1. Ceiling
2. Door/Wall
3. Tunnel/Threshold
4. Floor
5. Loot
6. Statue/Special

"Loot" refers to a loose pile of treasure or otherwise potentially useful items, or to a container (chest, sack, urn) that could possibly contain treasure. Actual contents of the container are the GM's decision, or can be rolled randomly (2d20, Material + Object.) If no container or loose treasure is present or desired, pile can be of items that might be serviceable; either a 1d20 Material roll or 2d20 Material + Object roll can be used to determine items.

"Statue" can be further described with a 3d20 roll for Material + Person + Object (for wooden statues of warriors holding lanterns, for example) or Material + Animal + Animal (for weird hybrid creatures) or other possible combinations of columns.

"Special" refers to a decorative or non-portable object that is trapped. A 2d20 Material + Object roll should work for this as well.

Some sample rolls produced the following:

• opening a door releases a flood of water
• a hazy mist descends from the ceiling, obscuring vision
• disturbing a treasure pile releases a cloud of choking dust

I'm torn over whether to create a new table for traps or not. On the one hand, it will beef up the results and create more variety for what a trap can do. On the other hand, it's an extra sheet of paper for the GM to worry about. With just two tables, I was hoping to shrink the print so both could fit on one side of a landscape-oriented sheet, making it easy to use at the table. Three tables makes this unviable.

Last-Minute GM: 20-Sided Quickies

I've put together a first draft of two of the 20-sided quickie tables. Actually, it's all the tables I did, with the monsters and geography condensed into one table. These are still considered rough: I did some re-arranging of entries and may want to change a few. However, if you already have a formula, you can use these tables just fine.

Table I: People, Actions, and Things
Table II: Monsters, Events, and Places

Update: Table II has been altered so that the creature and habitation types are next to each other, allowing the first three columns to be read as "MONSTER in a MODIFIER/EVENT LOCATION".

Quickie Locales

Here's a quick demo list of some locales rolled up with 2d20 on the Quickie Geography table. Just add a name and flesh out any you wish.

• (3 7) Tangled + Sand = petrified thickets in a desert; instead of chopping through, use a mace or hammer.
• (1+20) Rocky/Acid + Ridge/Canyon = a wide canyon with a rocky ridge twisting down the middle of it; the rocks burn exposed skin.
• (10+11) Dusty/Icy + Hill/Plain = a single hill rising in an otherwise flat, dusty plain; the dust and ice flecks blown in the wind are a minor hazard.
• (12 12) Icy + Plain, follow-up roll (6 7) Scorching + Fortified = a borderlands fort suffering a recent wave of scorching heat in the middle of an otherwise icy plain.
• (18 12) Hazy + Plain = flatlands filled with a smokey haze that causes minor breathing problems.
• (6+16) Hot/Slippery + Sand/Slope = a steep slope leading to the highlands; difficult to climb because of loose sand.

20-Sided Geography

I've done quickie tables for cultural elements and monsters. Time for quickie geographical features.

1	Acid Bubbling Canyon / Brook (battlefield)
2	Dry Erupting Wasteland / Wetland (enchanted)
3	Tangled Thawing Jungle / Ice flows (trade route)
4	Fiery Quaking Forest / Falls (forbidden)
5	Volcanic Venting Valley / Lake (lost/legendary)
6-7	Hot Scorching Sand / Saltwater (fortified)
8-10	Dusty Crumbling Hill / Well (farmland)
11-13	Icy Flooding Plain / Pool (civilized)
14-15	Stormy Gusting Ditch / Spring (sacred)
16	Slippery Sliding Slope / Sea Coast (subterranean)
17	Muddy Parting Mountain / Pond (patrolled)
18	Hazy Hailing Hedges / Kelp Fields (hellish)
19	Noxious Growing Glacier / Geyser (nomad lands)
20	Rocky Rolling Ridge / Rapids (ruins)

Again, there's more than one result on each line. The first, italicized entry is a Modifier that can be applied to geographical features, like "icy"; the second, plain text entry is a Geographical Event, like "erupting"; most of these are fairly normal, but a couple oddballs are thrown in to create exotic environments.

The third, bold entry is a Landform , while the fourth, plain text entry is a Water Feature. In a couple cases, terrestrial or aquatic biomes are substituted. The last entry (italicized and in parentheses) indicates the Habitation Type (usage of the land by humans or sentient beings.) It can be used as an alternate Modifier.

The standard formula for land is 2d20: Modifier X and Feature Y. On doubles, roll 2d20 for special features: Event X and Habitation Y. Alternatively, roll 3d20 for Modifier X, Feature Y, and Habitation Z, with doubles indicating extra rolls for Materials on the main or exotic quickie tables. You can also substitute additional Modifiers if you've already determined the Habitation you want.

If you don't already know whether the Feature should be aquatic or terrestrial, you can determine this randomly with a d6: 1 in 6 chance the new area is the opposite of the predominate type for adjacent areas, or 2 in 6 chance for land in the starting area on a completely blank map.

20-sided Quickie Monsters

The 20-sided quickie tables (main and exotic) were geared towards filling in details on human or humanoid societies and cultural artifacts. Here's a new table geared towards monsters.

1	Bear / Centipede (avian)
2	Wolf / Elephant (enchanted)
3	Jaguar / Trout (incorporeal)
4	Frog / Ostrich (fiend)
5	Lizard / Vampire Bat (undead)
6-7	Rat / Yak (vermin)
8-10	Cattle / Deer (herd animal)
11-13	Canine / Chicken (predator)
14-15	Sheep / Ape (humanoid/primate)
16	Snake / Shark (shapeless)
17	Pig / Piranha (plant)
18	Horse / Hippo (hybrid)
19	Goat / Giraffe (golem)
20	Zebra / Rhinoceros (reptilian)

First creature on a line is a beast, second is an avian, aquatic, or exotic animal. An italicized monster type is added in parentheses; some of these require a separate formula to fill in details. Basic formula (3d20) is Animal X with Feature Y and Behavior (Activity) Z; "Feature" in this case is a color or texture based on either Material from the main list or another Animal from this list. Alternative monsters (3d20) are based on Monster Type X, with type determining the rest of the formula:

• avians, vermin, herd animals, predators, primates, plants, reptilians: Feature Y and Behavior Z.
• enchanted: creatures with magical abilities. Form of Animal Y with Feature Z, plus additional 2d20 power roll for Activity X on/with Object Y. Alternatively, use a random spell table to assign a spell-like ability.
• incorporeal: can pass through matter, can't normally be hit with physical attacks. Either Form of Animal Y with Feature Z, if random shape desired, or Feature Y and Behavior Z if shape has already been decided.
• fiend: generic demons, devils, and other extradimensionals; may have a power bundle common to all fiends, if so desired. Shape of Animal Y with organ/body part from Animal Z, plus 2d20 power roll as per enchanted creatures.
• undead: remnant of a dead creature, generally mindless or consumed with a single dark will; can be turned by prayer. Usually humanoid with Feature Y and Behavior Z with the option of a 2d20 power roll (perhaps only on doubles.)
• shapeless: mindless slimes, oozes, and the like; usually don't attack creatures, just move towards them and engulf. Immune to most physical attacks. Color/Material Y and Behavior Z, possible optional 2d20 power roll on doubles.
• hybrid: head of one animal, body of another; thus, Animal Y and Animal Z. Additional 2d20 roll for Feature X and Behavior Y. For mutants, roll an additional 2d20 power roll.
• golem (robot, automaton): mindless artificial construct. Material Y and Behavior Z, with 2d20 power roll on doubles and optional 2d20 form roll (Animal X with Feature Y.)

Additionally, if you need to assign size, roll a d6: creature is small on 3 or less, large on 6. If you want a random alignment, roll a d6: Lawful on 1, Chaotic on 6.

20-sided Quickies: Exotic Edition

I promised an alternative table to go with yesterday's 20-sided Quickies. When rolling a formula on the main table, if two dice match, either interpret the number rolled on this table instead, or roll again for modifiers to apply to the first result rolled.

1	a Berserker charging towards an ash-filled Cart
2	a Dervish dancing around a diamond Wheel
3	a Torturer branding prisoners before a jade Idol
4	an Ogre waving a feathered Flag
5	a Lycanthrope tearing a velvet Veil
6-7	a Wizard enchanting with an ivory Wand
8-10	a Halfling planting a leafy Vine
11-13	a Bard playing a brazen Lyre
14-15	an Elf hiding behind a linen Tapestry
16	a Saint worshiping at a sand-covered Shrine
17	a Pirate smashing a porcelain Mask
18	a Hag brewing in a hide-covered Kettle
19	a Gnome drinking from a greasy Goblet
20	a Zombie brandishing a ruby Ring

Obviously, even both tables together do not cover all the possibilities. Sometimes, a combination of results will suggest a better option; other times, you might substitute a result from another category to come up with a better idea: if you don't like the idea of a pirate ruling class, you can substitute "mask-wearers", or if you aren't inspired by a kingdom that outlaws "brandishing", you can substitute "zombie-making".

These tables are meant to freshen up descriptions rather than limit them. Use wisely!

20-sided Quickies

I'm sure some of you want a more varied table than the quickie table of four entries in three categories. So here's a 14-entry table. Roll 2 or 3 d20s as appropriate for each formula and read left to right as X Y and Z.

1	a Barbarian wearing bone Armor
2	a Dwarf digging through an earthen Wall
3	a Jester sharpening a wooden Tool
4	a Fisherman filling a glass Flask
5	a Lord/Lady lighting an oil Lantern
6-7	a Warrior attacking with an iron Blade
8-10	a Peasant carrying a clay pot of Grain
11-13	a Tradesman making a water Barrel
14-15	a Scholar orating from a parchment Scroll
16	a Slave repairing a leather Shield
17	a Merchant selling bloody Meat
18	a Knight removing a silver Helmet
19	a Giant throwing golden Net
20	a Rogue hanging from a silken Rope

First bold word in a line is a Person or Profession, followed by a plain-text Activity; last bold word is an Object, preceded by an italic Material.

(I included Dwarf and Giant on this main list because they could be interpreted as either fantasy races or abnormal humans.)

If a match is rolled, re-roll a modifier for each matching position (X, Y or Z). Modifiers can be any of the four categories, depending on what you feel is appropriate, or they can be rolled on an alternative list (I'll save that for a future post.)

Overlaps, as mentioned elsewhere, can be read as combos for one or both positions.

Typical Formulas:

• urban encounters (2d20): Person X leading group of Person Y.
• activities of NPCs/creatures (2d20): Activity X performed with/on Object Y.
• group activities (3d20): Person X performing Activity Y on Person Z.
• government (3d20): Ruling Class (Person) X controls Activity Y and oppresses Class Z.
• economics (2d20): principle income from Activity X on/with Item Y.
• housing (2d20): walls of Material X, roof of Material Y.