Inspired by Quinn’s quest, I have been reading Heart: the city beneath and Delta Green: impossible landscapes. Both touch upon a sort of obsessive-compulsive madness at the heart of hoarding and conspiracy theories, where everything is connected to everything else. The book that contains all books, mazes inside mazes inside mazes, spirals leading down toContinue reading “Hoarder Conspiracy Board Madness table”
Author Archives: randomtableoftheweek
Mayfair Lake – 1 hex adventure location
A while back I made a 1-hex adventure location called the smuggler’s cliffs. I am working on a write-up of several more locations. The whole thing is very janky, which is the only way I know how to do it. Here is another location, Mayfair lake. The evil Molak has butchered a whole village forContinue reading “Mayfair Lake – 1 hex adventure location”
Herbal remedies
Potions, herbs and mushrooms have been part of D&D random tables since day one. So what’s one more table going to change? I find that many of the tables tend to match herbs with an effect. Sometimes, the effect is narrative, sometimes mechanic. I have used such herbs and fungal tables in my current campaign,Continue reading “Herbal remedies”
Crypt/shrine dungeon encounters
Classic setting for a dungeon: a family crypt, or an abandoned underground shrine to a forgotten god or hero. Winter’s daughter and the shattered gate are 2 OSR versions of this trope that I ran recently, and in both cases the players enjoyed their experience. Why? Because those are great adventures: there is something toContinue reading “Crypt/shrine dungeon encounters”
Cave pools
Next entry in the “dungeon locations” series, is cave pools. Which are so stereotypical and classic that in fact players barely react to them. My players did in fact wander into a large, cavernous space with a knee-high resplendent pool of water. The encounter they had was memorable (a worm drake, defeated with a purifyContinue reading “Cave pools”
some house rules for old school essentials
After more than a year running OSE games, with a long-running Dolmenwood campaign still chugging along, I thought I’d jot down the house rules I found to improve enjoyment of the game at the table, along with some thoughts. The three “big ones” have been so helpful both in refreshing the game for veterans, andContinue reading “some house rules for old school essentials”
Curses
The other face of ritual and alchemy is of course, curses. The ones presented here are easiest put on NPCs, seeing that DMing some of these may be quite challenging. But deployed in a way that makes narrative sense they may forever alter a PC in a very compelling way. As always, I strive toContinue reading “Curses”
Simple alchemy
Somebody has to make a potion, a ritual, enchant a weapon, produce a device. It is clear, it will need some specific ingredients, and the appropriate instructions (barely legible on a mouldy anciant book) should be followed. Newer D&D editions have mechanisms for DC checks based on what needs to be done. As always, “oldContinue reading “Simple alchemy”
Birds and civilization
Did past me actually say a random table a week? What a naive thing to say. Truth is, I haven’t run out of stupid ideas, but rather, real life came for me and my spare time. But I hope I am back, or at least sufficiently free to post regularly. Where were we? Right, birds.Continue reading “Birds and civilization”
Fisherman village encounters
I need to construct a random encounter table for a fisherman village my players are currently in. They are in the village of Dreg, in Dolmenwood. The village is ridden with crime, and is mostly not a fishing, but a farming village. Nevertheless, I have changed some things around, so I needed a table withContinue reading “Fisherman village encounters”
Random table of the week 