Phew! I needed that two day break from blogging after doing the rather late #RPGaDAY2020. It didn’t seem like a marathon while doing it, but now, afterwards. It sure does.

During this mini break the idea for this post started to kick around.

I think it’s fair to assume that some may have noticed from the random dungeon and random character posts (these will return btw), and the recent #RPGaDAY2020 Day 19 post, that I like randomly generated stuff.

What you won’t know, unless you really really know me, is that I’m a big fan of video games that use procedurally generated content. Be that the old school Nethack and Rogue, to the more modern Spelunky, Diablo, The Binding of Isaac, or Minecraft to name a few examples.

It’s not just the game play experience I like, but also the algorithms that lie behind it all. After all I am still a programmer as well as a gamer (both video and boardgame). I’m fascinated by the theory and application.

Within D&D and other RPGs this randomness is recreated by using dice and numerous tables.

But for this post I’m going to focus on D&D and what I use to create random content for my campaign and some of the posts here.

Let’s start with the good old Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG). It’s something every DM will have.

The most obvious random content that I would guess 100% of DMs have used at least once are the tables for random encounters on page 85. But there are many official and unofficial random encounter tables. These tables cover any situation that a DM could possibly imagine or need.  Sly Flourish and his patreon is a good source for tables, as is the DM’s Guild.

How about creating a dungeon?

Well on page 99 of the DMG we get tables to roll against to define the location of the dungeon, who created the dungeon and why. But my favourite part of the DMG is Appendix A: Random Dungeons. This appendix is chock full of tables to generate a random dungeon.

Another source of great tables that combine both those sections from the DMG is the Tome of Adventure Design. I’ve mentioned this before in that Day 19 post (link above).

I think by the random dungeon posts you know I am a fan of the Map & Dice Playing Cards, and the Deck of Many Dungeons for creating a random dungeon. Like any good procedurally generated content there are rules to follow while creating the random dungeon using them. These rules govern how to start and exit the dungeon. But they allow you to create a dungeon on the fly during a session, or act as inspiration during session planning.

Thanks to the Kelsey of The Arcane Library and her rather wonderful YouTube video about her minimalist DM kit I got put onto Jade Gaming Character dice. I can roll these and create a npc on the fly. Combine this with a handy table of names to use, and away you go.

The thing I like about the above is they are a tool to use to inspire during session planning. If you don’t like what you roll, just roll again. Or maybe there is something on the table you are currently using that sparks the imagination, so you just go with that instead.

I think the next post or two should be some examples of me going through the process of using these tables.