Town and City Block Tool

The Sketchbox Dice Tool for creating impromptu towns has a very primitive method for generating town and city blocks: roll a d6. The pips or dots represent buildings in a block, while the arrangement of those dots represent their position in the block. It's serviceable, but provides little variety with only six arrangements.

I have better ideas I'm working on for the updated dice tool. As yet another temporary measure until then, I've whipped up a PDF for the Town and City Block Tool. It's a table that uses 2d6 for 36 possible block arrangements. Roll the dice, read the first die as the row and the second die as the column. Or, if you prefer, drop one die on the sheet and use the block type it lands on.

• Dark grey shapes = buildings
• Medium grey rectangles = courtyards
• Light regions enclosed by black lines = walled gardens

Courtyards can contain tables, benches or other seating, or features like statues or fountains. Gardens may contain trees, bushes, flowers, or a vegetable patch, as well as other features. The main difference is that gardens are private, while courtyards are publicly accessible and may even contain merchant stalls.

No details like gates, doors, windows, trellises, or balconies are shown. These crude "maps" are mainly to show the positions of streets and alleys.

Edit: I left off some details about using the tool, but as I started to edit this post, I realized this might take longer than expected. Follow-up post tomorrow.

Character Sheet as Hit Location Chart

Last Sunday, Telecanter's Receding Rules issued a challenge: create dice drop charts for other needs that rarely get mentioned, for example random character creation or hit location. I thought I'd mention an old non-D&D example.

One of the forums ran a Game Chef design competition back in March 2009 with some odd constraints, including "completely random characters". My entry was Resist the Atom!, a mixed resistance fighter/supers game where the supers are the enemy. I included a character sheet that you rolled dice on to randomly assign scores to ten attributes. Here's an excerpt from the character creation section:

The first step is to create some characters. Take a look at the character sheet: it has an outline of a human form and four grey lines that divide the sheet into various regions. There are boxes at the top for the character's name and player's name, and also ten boxes to write stats in. Six of the stat boxes are in pairs, with a single label for both stats in the pair. There's space for writing a short character description under the names, skills and backgrounds on the left, and important items owned on the right.

The arrangement isn't just artistic, it's practical. You can roll dice directly on the sheet to randomly determine hit location in the four basic areas: head, arms, body, and legs. You can do the same for non-human objects and interpret the body parts by analogy, or if you're stumped for ideas you can use the regions of the character sheet metaphorically. This is also the key to random character generation: you roll several dice directly on the character sheet and determine which stats to change based on where the dice land. Dice that land roughly mid-way between two or three stats affect all of them, so even rolling just one die can produce a lot of variability.

Head Arms, and Legs represent pairs of stats covering sensing, acting, and moving. Each has a speed and a power. Body is a single stat (essentially, hit points/Con,) and there were three other stats, Age, Resources, and Secrecy (secret resources.) All characters start with Speed stats of 4, Power, Body, and Resources stats of 3, and Secrecy of 1; Age is calculated from skills or defaults to 25. The gimmick was that you rolled dice on the sheet and assigned each die result to the stat it lands closes to, or two or three stats if a die lands on a line. Everything else stys at the default. You also roll on the sheet for resources, equipment, special backgrounds, and abilities (using the names of the stats to determine what you have for each.)

At some point, I will probably use this as a template for random haracter generation. I already tried a more abstract approach (you can use the right-hand column on the Quickie Dice Tool, for example.) But I like the way the character image doubles as a hit location chart.

Sketchbox Underworlds, Revisited

Did I mention yet how the sketchbox dice tool can be used for mapping out underworlds? I didn't? Man, that was the whole reason I started updating it, too...

The basic idea is that you use the techniques for randomly rolling village layouts to generate a dungeon or cavern system. Roll dice with pips on the sheet, each pip represents anything from one room cluster to one neighborhood; connect districts with tunnels instead of roads. Pretty simple.

For small cave systems, roll 1 die and treat it as a hamlet (each pip represents one to six caves; roll a d6 for cave layouts or randomly select a cave geomorph for each pip.) Alternatively, you could roll for elevation with d4s and roll 3 dice for cave layouts at the same time, as if you were rolling for above-ground terrain features, to establish the levels; any "level" without any six-sided dice is one large cave, and tunnels slope up/down to connect dice on different levels.

More extensive underworlds are rolled like villages or towns, treating each pip as a block of buildings or a district of 1d6 blocks. This is based on the assumption that such underworlds are the underground remnants of previously-above-ground settlements. For now, we're just concerned with rolling dungeon layouts, but in a future post I'd like to delve into interpreting the rings, rolling to see the status of tunnels and districts, and even how to do this on-the fly, so that you could leave your megadungeon notes as sketchy as the impromptu towns.

Sketchbox Dice Tool v. 2.0

Here's a PDF of the Sketchbox Dice Tool, version 2.0. I will probably make a few minor layout tweaks -- lining some things up, for example, and maybe changing the font size for the licensing info -- but I won't be changing the version number unless there are changes to the content. Which, of course, depends on how people respond to the tool as it stands. One concern is that I've tried to put a short form of the instructions directly on the sheet, so that once someone read a longer explanation of all the ways to use the tool, they could run a game with just this sheet for village and barony generation, never needing to refer to another document. Of course, the instructions might look a little cluttered, or might not make much sense the way they are currently worded, so this is something I'd like feedback on for a potential v.2.1.

I've included a compressed version of the improvised town table at the bottom, to use in conjunction with the main tool. There are changes to the way the town table works, since I've eliminated "Small Village" and "Small Town" as separate categories; instead, the label "small" will modify the listed results. Also, I've changed it so that the hirelings roll and the number of tradespeople per craft are both derived from the listed Crafts roll: subtract 1 from the result for the number of hirelings available that week, halve the result (round down) for the number of tradespeople.

As always, be on the lookout for weird things Google Docs does when you upload a PDF. I think it's changed the way the shading looks, but I can't spot any missing content.

Village Layouts

I said in the post about the sketchbox dice tool that you could make a "layout roll" to determine the way a town, village or hamlet looks, and what building are where. I should probably explain this a little more, since it's going to be important later on.

I've mentioned several times the idea of dividing a settlement into "conceptual quarters", based on the idea that a town has four parts: the area where merchants, nobles, or the ruling class lives; the area where the general crafts and support services are; the area devoted to whatever the town's main economic focus or other reason for being is; and the area for common laborers, peasants, and others of the lowest class live. The actual size or position of each quarter can vary, though, and for smaller settlements, the higher social classes might not exist. A village probably won't have a dedicated merchant's quarter or noble household; a hamlet won't have a specialty, but will instead focus on crops, hunting, fishing, or some other food-related labor.

On the sketchbox tool, the first three quarters are assigned to rings. Note that the order of the rings is linked to the size of the settlement, to make it easier to remember which label to ignore. To determine the rough arrangement of the quarters, you roll one or more six-sided dice (the kind with pips) on the sheet and check where they land. Dice that land in the Craft ring show where the craftsman's quarter is, relative to the common quarter. Dice that land in the next ring show where the "Focal" quarter lies (for example, the docks and shipyards for a port city, or the forges and smithies for a town devoted to metalcraft.) Dice that land in the third ring show where the noble or merchants quarter lies. Dice that land outside the outermost ring can represent an outcast or underclass area, if desired.

Each dot represents anything from one building to one neighborhood. The pattern of dots represents the arrangement of the buildings or other partitions within the quarter.

Commoners will always outnumber others. The total on the dice equals the total number of buildings or partitions in the common quarter.

If the settlement is a hamlet, you roll 1d6 and treat any Focal or Noble results as Craft. Each dot represents one building. There will always be at least one smithy and one mill (or other service related to the local economic activity.) There will probably only be one road, or at best an intersection.

If the settlement is a village, you roll 3d6 and treat any Noble results as Focal. Like a hamlet, there will always be a minimum of one smithy, one mill, and one tavern or inn, plus a market area. If more than one die lands in a ring, each die represents a different "district". Each dot represents a block; you can leave blocks undefined, rolling a d6 for the number and arrangement of buildings when the block is visited. There will be small roads between each block, larger roads between districts or quarters.

If the settlement is a town, you roll 5d6. In addition to the minimum locations for a village, there will always be at least one building for a noble or merchant family. Each dot represents a district; when needed, you can roll a d6 for the number of blocks in a district or the number of buildings in a block.

You have the option of rolling 1 die less for a small village or small town, or rolling 6 or more dice for cities. Cities will have more elaborate streets: use the letters of one short word per dot to define a neighborhood and roll a d6 when needed for buildings.

Paths in the Wilderness

If you check out the wilderness tag I added to yesterday's post about the sketchbox dice tool, you will notice that I was once working on some tricks for designing landscapes at or around the one page = 2 leagues level. I called these "SubHexCrawl tools", because they were intended for generation of details at a scale between dungeoncrawl scale (for interiors, villages or ruins) and hexcrawl scale (for wilderness or long-distance travel.) One of the things that happened was that I promised the next part of that series was going to be about paths of various kinds: roads, rivers, streams, walls, anything that is basically linear but that changes direction.

I didn't finish it because I had a couple competing ideas on how to do this, and neither one seemed completely satisfactory as a quick, simple method, nor did either look significantly better than the other. And then other topics became interesting, so I set the idea aside. But now, I have to go back and do this, since it's relevant to creating maps for a sketchbox campaign: when you draw roads or rivers that connect your towns and villages, you need to use the same techniques.

Let's start with what we already know: the basic direction and distance to the next settlement. You could just draw a straight line on your map to the next settlement, maybe make it curve or snake a bit if it's intended to be a river. That's pretty dull, though, and will lack a bit of realism, so we'll only use that as a starting point.

Both roads and rivers are going to be affected by terrain, so you will either need to know where your hills and hollows are, or you will need to establish them by rolling d4s for elevation changes. Roads will tend to stay on lower elevations and not go straight over hills, going around instead; they won't necessarily go down in every pit or hollow, though, but might go into a depression with a shallow slope. Rivers will definitely flow into lower levels, forming ponds in some cases; if you need to continue further downstream but can't because everything is at a higher elevation, cut a canyon through the hill or plateau.

Vegetation or other features probably won't matter too much, but if you have a clump of dense brush or woods, roads will tend to go around those, too. In those cases, you might want to roll for placement of a layer.

Roads will also tend to go around landmarks, or between them if you have a group of objects. You should place or roll for all landmarks between your two endpoints of your road. One roll for every league would work best. If your landmarks are of the constructed variety (the old church, the ruined tower,) roads will go towards the landmark first, then go around or turn away from it. So will rivers, although that seems unrealistic (people don't build rivers!) What is really being emulated is the fact that a constructed landmark would have been built near the river, so the river must have flowed close by, at least at one time.

If you aren't quite mapping out all the little twists and turns yet, but just need the general gist of the road or river for a player map, use the sketchmap dice tool to plot the path's shape. Roll 1 die on the map for each league between the two settlements; each die represents a point in the path where the path turns or splits, with some kind of terrain feature or landmark at that point. Connect two dice in the same hexagonal ring in numeric order, with ties representing forked paths.

If two dice with the same numeric value are close together, the path splits and then rejoins; put some interesting feature along each path, if it's a road, or put something between the paths, if it's a river or stream.

If two dice with the same numeric value are farther apart, only one of the two leads to the next settlement. The other is an offshoot path, leading to some other feature.

Direction matters. The dice furthest from the center represent the final stretch of the path to the destination. If these are in the opposite direction from the destination, the path is going to have to curve back around; there needs to be some terrain feature blocking a more direct route.

Sketchbox Dicemap

Here is a tentative re-design of the settlement dicemap I posted long ago, which I'm improving for use in sketchbox campaigns for wilderness (and eventually sketchbox underworld) mapping. It's not a PDF because I'm still working on it and will probably add more features, or move some existing features, to make it look nice and be more understandable.

This dice map is meant to be more multi-purpose, and include more of the instructions directly on the map to eliminate looking up results in another table. When it becomes a PDF, I will eventually use this as the cover and add several pages of instructions, examples and options.

You will notice that the rings of the map are hexagons. There's no real reason for this, other than it makes it easier to align text labels. Also, each ring is labeled three ways:

1. Population Density, with a note on what dice type to roll for settlements;
2. Settlement Size/Distance, as in the original map;
3. Settlement Quarters, from the quarter system.

The idea is that first you roll to define rough population zones around your start point, then roll for the five nearest settlements, then roll for the layout of the town using the quarter system. For the latter, I'm thinking you would use standard d6s with pips: one for a hamlet, two for a village, three for a town (more for cities.) Roll on the map: the ring a die lands in indicates the type of quarter, the direction indicates rough position, and the number and arrangement of pips indicates neighborhoods within that quarter The total of the dice is the number of commoner/laborer neighborhoods.

Perverse Polymorpher v. 2.0

I'm sure some of you figured out that the image with numbers arranged on each edge that I posted two days ago is an updated version of the Perverse Polymorpher. The previous version was arranged radially, which I think is actually less subject to bias. However, lots of people prefer the rectilinear drop die style which Zak used in Vornheim. It's certainly a little easier to explain, in this case.

Here is the completed PDF of the latest version. It will generate d3, d5, d7, d8, d9, d10, d12, d14, d16, d24, and d30; it will even do d6 and d20, although I haven't included directions on the sheet. Of course, some of these dice results you can already roll on your own; what this is mainly good for is emulating those pesky "Zocchi" dice, the d3, d7, d14, d16, d24, and d30 that are required for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. The  older radial dice map can generate other varieties, but it's a little trickier to use.

Not The Final Thing

I'm working on something.

This isn't the final thing. I still have to tweak some things, like decide which borders to keep and which to remove. And, of course, write up some instructions to place in the middle. But before I go any farther, I thought I'd ask: can people figure out roughly how to use it? Can you guess how the shading is supposed to work?

Also: should I try to squeeze the names of the seasons in there, somewhere, or is this plenty?

Drop Dice/Map News, Spring 2012

A blogpost by Smokestack Jones clued me into another maker of dice maps/drop dice charts, over here. These are going for on-the-fly location generation based around a theme. He also provides a blank hex map useful for that approach.

Edit: Also see John Bell's comment on this post for more dice maps based on the same arrangement. (I'm being lazy and not copying/pasting the links.)

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.