Great Random Charts from RPG History, volume II

I can't say that I'm a big fan of Adventures in Fantasy, the second RPG that Dave Arneson ever worked on. It's too bland for my tastes. Like the new Blackmoor d20 material all the awesome stuff like laser beams and robots has been cut out, leaving behind nothing but super-vanilla Tolkienisms and Old World folklore. The section on dragons is pretty much the only part of the game that I like. These charts (which I have reformatted but not otherwise altered) look like a super-fun way of freaking out jaded D&D players.

RANDOM DRAGON PHYSIOLOGY
Head (d10)
1) Horned Ram
2-3) Horned Camel
4-6) Hornless Crocodile
7) Elephant
8) Salamander
9-10) Serpent

Body (d10)
1-2) Green Scales
3-5) Armored Scales
6-7) Red Scales
8) Gold Scales
9) Green Armored
10) Red Armored

Extremities (2d10)
2) Shelled belly, front feet of tiger
3-5) Lion forelegs, eagle rearlegs
6-7) Forked tail, neck of serpent
8) Webbed feet, bovine ears
9) Winged, forked tail, neck of serpent, webbed feet, bovine ears
10) Winged, shelled belly, front feet of tiger, lion forelegs, eagle rearlegs
11) Winged, lion forelegs, eagle rearlegs, forked tail, neck of serpent
12) Winged, shelled belly, front feet of tiger, forked tail, neck of serpent
13-15) Winged, lion forelegs, eagle rearlegs, webbed feet, bovine ears
16-19) Winged, shelled belly, front feet of tiger, webbed feet, bovine ears
20) Winged, shelled belly, front feet of tiger, lion forelegs, eagle rearlegs, forked tail, neck of serpent, webbed feet, bovine ears

That last entry is a doozy! After these charts are several more pages of dragon details, include random personality charts and stuff like that. I'm not going to retype all 9 pages of draconic info, but let me hit a few interesting highlights.

• Female dragons lay 1-6 eggs six months after mating occurs. Only 50% of the egges are fertile. Infertile eggs crumble to dust in 1-3 years. Fertile eggs hatch after 30 years, during which time they are impervious to all non-magical attacks. After the hatching the mother drives the young out of her lair.
• Some dragons can be convinced to adventure with the PCs if sufficient treasure is involved. The treasure must contain at least 100,000gp, 4 magic items, or something of peculiar interest to the dragon (see below). In no case will the dragon venture more than 90 miles from its lair.
• All dragons are hobbyists. Common areas of interest include magic, academia, warfare, crafts, history, the natural world, food, and sex. Only those dragons with specific interest in sexual matters ever go to the trouble to mate. The rest of them consider the act beneath the dignity of the species. By the numbers 90% of all dragons are celibate.

Arneson's dragons are like the ultimate super-nerds. They're pretty freakish looking, don't venture out too much, have weird tastes, and they're pretty much all virgins. Yet inexplicably they sit at the top of the food chain.

Great Random Charts from RPG History, volume I

Today's post is the beginning of a series that will go into at least 3 volumes and may turn out to be an ongoing affair here. Because I love stupid random die charts and it's fun to share. Our first entry goes all the way back to original Dungeons & Dragons book 3, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventure. This one is quick, fun, and still totally useable today. Here's a cleaned-up and reformatted-for-your-TV version of the random castle inhabitants chart from page 15 of OD&D book 3.

RANDOM CASTLE OWNER AND MINIONS
Instructions: Roll d6 for castle owner, then d4 for owner's brute squad

1) Lord (Fighter level 9+)

1. d8 Champions (Fighters 8)
2. d6 Heroes (Fighters 4) on Griffons
3. d10 Myrmidons (Fighters 6)
4. d4 Giants

2) Superhero (Fighter 8)

1. d8 Myrmidons (Fighters 6)
2. d4 Heroes (Fighters 4) riding Rocs
3. d4 Ogres
4. d10 Swashbucklers (Fighters 5)

3) Wizard (Magic-User 11+)

1. d4 Dragons
2. d4 Chimeras
3. d4 Wyverns
4. d4 Basilisks
   

4) Necromancer (Magic-User 10)

1. d4 Chimeras
2. d6 Manticores
3. d12 Lycanthropes
4. d12 Gargoyles

5) Patriarch (Lawful Cleric 8+)

1. d20 Heroes (Fighters 4)
2. d6 Superheroes (Fighters 8)
3. d10 Treants
4. d8 Heroes (Fighters 4) riding Hippogriffs

6) Evil High Priest (Chaotic Cleric 8+)

1. d10 Trolls
2. d6 Vampires
3. d20 White Apes
4. d10 Spectres

According to the rules, each castle also has 3d6 x 10 regular guards, half crossbowmen in light armor and half melee guys in heavier armor. In modern terms these guys would be low level Warriors.

Each castle owner also had a chance of some henchmen/cohort types. Fighters had a 25% chance of a Magic-User level d4+4 and a 50% chance of a Cleric level d4+2. Magic-Users got a 25% chance of a Fighter level d4+4 and a 50% chance of an apprentice Magic-User of level d4+3. Clerics had a fifty/fifty chance of havinf d6 clerical assistants of levels d4+3 each.

In a modern 3.x campaign a little bit of liberal interpretation can really stretch these charts. You could use any kind of fighty classes in place where a Fighter is called for and ditto for various arcane specialties and the Magic-User results on the chart. And anyone who rolls up a Necromancer and stats up a plain Wizard 10 is just being boorish. Give that dude the power to raise up undead armies! For extra silliness whenever a Superhero comes up on the chart, model the character on someone like Batman or Spider-man. "Welcome to stately Wayne Castle. I am Sir Bruce."

a question no one wanted answered

I don't plan to post a bunch of stuff from my Brythunian Age journal, but I thought in the spirit of the Halloween season this little chart I made might be fun. The idea is to roll a d20 whenever the PCs burst in on a roomful of little green dudes.

What are the goblins up to?

1. Making rope out of human hair. A coil 1-100' long is already complete.
2. Boiling up a pot of mud and gravel stew.
3. Singing songs about hidden treasure.
4. Playing poker with blank cards. The printing on both sides is visible only to creatures with infravision
5. Dancing. At least one goblin will be playing an instrument, probably a fiddle or a concertina.
6. Playing tenpins with a skull and some legbones.
7. Interrogating a rat tied to a tiny chair. "I'm gonna ask you one last time: Where is the cheese?"
8. Building a house of cards with the deck from item 4.
9. Discussing the pros and cons of sexual congress with a wide variety of other monsters and races.
10. Eating meat pie. The pie might be stirge or it might be pixie. The goblins can't remember what they put in it.
11. Debating the crisis of succession that would arise from the untimely demise of the current goblin king.
12. Shining shoes of various sizes (kobold to ogre). They all radiate faintly under detect magic but have no known powers.
13. Three words: bunny eating contest.
14. Reading aloud someone else's love letters, preferably detailed notes to or from one of the PCs.
15. Sewing filthy rags into patchwork tunics. If a completed tunic is worn it protects as platemail+1. If the garment is cleaned the magic fades. 1-3 tunics have been completed.
16. Drawing obscene grafitti on the dungeon walls. Each goblin has d4 pieces of chalk in various colors.
17. Arguing vehemently over the proposition that cannibalism should be kept strictly in the family.
18. Strip chess tournament. There's a 1 in 6 chance at least some of the goblins are already in the all-together. Not a sight for the faint of heart.
19. Pickling sliced shrieker. 1-20 jars are done.
20. Trying on pretty pink dresses.