Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Random tables for contemporary gonzo settings

Roll a d4 for boring, a d6 for adventure, a d8 for action, a d12 for supernatural (make them aliens for scifi feel) and a d20 for batshit insane. You can raise the stakes with each encounter. Start with a d4 and move it up for each achievement of the player characters! Or use the random die table in the end for mostly standard, but a few strange results.

encounters (1 in 6 chance of kinship)
0 scientists
1 cops
2 junkies or bums
3 celebrity (actor, singer, politician, scientist, writer, model)
4 demonstration
5 street gang
6 disaster (earthquake, flood, huge hole in ground, fire, virus, swarms)
7 (bank) robbers or terrorists
8 (serial) killer
9 beasts or werewolves
10 experiments or vampires
11 zombies
12 fae
13 evil children
14 smallish UFO or magic tower
15 doppelgangers
16 armed nazis
17 dinosaurs or magicians
18 dimension hole
19 giant creature á la Godzilla, King Kong or plain old giant or dragon
20 huge spaceship or god

(Use this for names: Random authentic US names)


Next City Block (you can draw a square on a map, increase die size each roll, if you want)
1 residental (urban or suburb)
2 shops / restaurants / bars
3 offices
4 park /water
5 square / parking lot
6 slum
7 motorway
8 government
9 museum
10 monument
11 church / temple
12 factory
13 harbour / sea
14 prison
15 military
16 airport
17 mountain
18 abyss
19 lava
20 tentacles

Buildings
1 shed
2 slum housing
3 flat
4 family home
5 sub urban home
6 council housing
7 trailer
8 mansion
9 dorm or elderly home
10 fast food shack or diner
11 shop
12 skyscraper
13 power plant
14 stadion
15 university
16 circus
17 zoo
18 mall
19 graveyard
20 park

If you want a more detailed random table for buildings, just use the foursquare categories as random table.

motivations
1 power
2 love / passion
3 wealth
4 pride
5 outside expectiations
6 credibilty
7 helping others
8 the challenge
9 consequences
10 lust
11 hunger
12 mind control
13 addicton / survival
14 evil
15 complete crazyness
16 nihilsm
17 love & peace & drugs
18 suicide
19 absorbation
20 boredom

rumors (those can be crazier than the truth obviously)
[encounters] are in [building] to [fight/start pact] with [encounters] for [motivations]. Nobody can guess how [encounters] will impact the situation.

support (1 in 6 chance of betrayal)
1 family
2 colleagues
3 new love
4 professionals that want money
5 subculture
6 celebrity (actor, singer, politician)
7 class
8 foreigners
9 secret organization
10 bloodline
11 foreigners
12 animals
13 ghosts
14 robots
15 oracle / enigma
16 sentient nature/ city
17 AI internet system
18 aliens
19 angels
20 gods

weather
1 sunny
2 foggy
3 rainy
4 overcast
5 heatwave
6 snow and ice
7 hurricane
8 dangerous smog
9 radioactive
10 eternal night
11 time freezes
12 grey goo

Random die size
1 d4
2 d6
3 d8
4 d10
5 d12
6 d20


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