I’d like to bring the Cityographer Kickstarter to your attention.

This is an Inkwell Ideas project, brought to you by Joe Wetzel, who created (among other things) Hexographer, Dungeonographer, the Coat of Arms Design Studio, and the Dungeomorph Dice.

Cityographer Kickstarter

Cityographer generates random settlement maps based on inputs you provide (tech level, population size, proximity to water). It also generates floorplans for buildings, as well as what those buildings are and who’s inside.

Now, Cityographer needs support–about $6,000 in the next 31 days. I don’t normally hawk Kickstarters, but this is about my needs, so I want to see this kick-started right in the pants. Let’s review:

• It creates random city maps
• It tells you what the buildings on those maps are
• It’s by Joe Wetzel, who provide amazing support and upgrades for his software

This is within the grasp of us all: 200 gaming disciples pledging $30 each could see this through. Are there 200 folks out there who would like a program to create, populate, and map random cities for their RPG settings? Does Vecna have a problem driving stick-shift? You bet.

If you like Hexographer, I urge you to give Cityographer some consideration. Where else are you going to get a random settlement generator that’s feature-rich, works on any computer, is customisable, and won’t require 15 credit hours to figure out how to use?

Short one this time, which is far less than you deserve since my last post was about a month ago. That said, this series isn’t done, just delayed. If we ever get together for a beer, I’ll tell you all about it.

Fortresses

Continuing with major encounters, fortresses are an interesting case. They’re not exactly settlements in the traditional sense, since their very nature is defined by some martial purpose. But they’re hardly self-sufficient, so once all the monsters are cleared and the land secured, the fortress attracts settlers and, as a result, morphs from outpost to capitol.

In fantasy campaigns, fortresses seem to crop up with regularity—fortress populations have come up before. I base that on the prevalence of random tables used to describe who’s in the castle and what the lord’s minions are. Certainly, this has been covered in every pre-2nd Ed. version of D&D. The question is, why so many fortresses? If fortresses are smaller than settlements, why the need to give them so much attention?

My theory is that fortresses are adventure. They straddle the line between civilisation and wilderness. While they provide safety, they’re erected in places of danger—they are islands of security in a sea of peril. Each fortress is a wildcard: what does it protect? will the characters be welcomed? are they better off within its walls or without? what’s going on inside? [1]

Here’s something you might use to populate fortresses in your campaign:

ROLL  TYPE*    LORD**    ALIGNMENT  PROTECTING      GUARDS        MAJORDOMO✝
 1    Tower    Fighter   Lawful     Village         Bandits       Giant
 2    Tower    Fighter   Lawful     Village         Knights       Dragon
 3    Tower    Fighter   Neutral    Town            Men-at-arms   Fighter
 4    Keep     Noble     Neutral    Crossing        Men-at-arms   Fighter
 5    Keep     Noble     Chaotic    Resource        Men-at-arms   Thief
 6    Castle   Noble     Chaotic    Resource        Dervishes     Humanoid
 7    -        Thief     -          Border          Humanoids     Mage
 8    -        Mage      -          Dungeon         Demi-humans   Demon Lord
 9    -        Mage      -          Ruin/Artefact   Automatons    Elemental
 10   -        Usurper   -          Secret Cabal    Barbarians    Naga
---------------
*  Use the following guidelines for size and guard strength:
   - Tower: 1d4+2 floors; 1d4 guards/floor
   - Keep: 1d4+3 floors; 1d6+2 guards/floor
   - Castle: 3d4 towers surrounding a keep; 1d8 guards/floor
** Level 7-12 (1d6+6)
✝  Level 4-9 (1d6+3)

The Lord of each fortress may be described via the Random Noble Houses table. If that isn’t enough to provide a hook, use the “What Goes On” section of the 69 Villages post.

Minocra Fortresses

Using the table above, here’s what I came up with for Minocra’s three major fortresses (my results are shown to show you what I was working with).

Hex #0812: Bala Keep (garrison: 15 dervishes)
(What I rolled: keep; neutral noble; protecting a resource; dervishes & an elemental majordomo)
The knight-errant Bala completed his keep just over a year ago, and it’s a beach-head for expansion into the interior. The keep is garrisoned by a troop of 15 dervishes—nomads who fought with Bala during his campaigns in the mainland desert—and the air elemental they’ve bound to their service. Bala’s plan is to forge upriver to clear land and attract settlers, but he’s beset upon by the native Usabir clans and their avian idols—it’s a fair bet that he would welcome some extra muscle.

Hex #1005: Tower of the Brine (garrison: 9 men-at-arms)
(What I rolled: tower; chaotic noble; protecting a village; men-at-arms & a dragon majordomo)
Through rooted in the seabed, only the uppermost storey of the Brine Tower is visible above the waves, though the sea crashes against the structure’s white marble walls in a fury of thunderous churn and spraying foam. The tower was originally erected to serve the small fishing village to the west, but the village is no more and the place has since been occupied by the mad scion Shilaas and his deranged houseguard. Rumour states that Shilaas plunges the depths in search of favour from some powerful aquatic denizen—credence is lent to the stories via sporadic sightings of a massive sea serpent coursing about the tower’s vicinity.

It's only a model

Hex #1518: Kubu Keep (garrison: 32 humanoids)
(What I rolled: keep; chaotic mage; protecting a crossing; humanoids & a humanoid majordomo)
The sorcerer Kubu rules southern Usibir clans from his riverside keep. The mage’s goblin raiders, led by hobgoblin “officers,” sally forth regularly on raids throughout the surrounding jungle, occasionally taking Usibir captives, but most often scouring the riverbanks for the Frost Mirror, thought to be a portal that crosses to the Cold Realms. Kubu’s purpose in the Cold Realms is unknown (if, indeed, that is even his goal), but he suffers no trespass.

Final Words

Again, I think the random gods for guidance—this is another set of results that I would have struggled to come up with on my own.

As always, I’m interested in your suggestions and results—does this table work for you, and what’s come of it in your campaign?

_______________

1. Remember your Mallory? Ever damn castle had some weird witch-curse-giant-damsel-prisoner-S&M dungeon thing going on.

I remember when I could post once a week. Those days aren’t over, but they’re harder to come by. Work’s been a challenge (but in a good way), and I’ve been splitting my RPG time between Chimerapedia, a little Swords & Wizardry project, and some sandbox construction tools. Another sideline is playing PartyPoker in Hungarian. Hey, it’s how the Internets work.

The Story So Far

Getting back to the Minocra mini-setting, I started working on the fixed encounters, starting with the encounter format suggested a few weeks ago, and adding some random guidance. By “fixed encounters,” I mean what Part 2 of Hex-based Campaign Design calls Major Encounters.

If I had to draw a distinction between Major and Minor encounters, it would be this: Major encounters are permanent fixtures in the campaign, known to everyone in the setting. Minor encounters are known only to locals or to those who happen upon them. Put it this way: New York City is a Major Encounter. Rosie’s Bar across from the PATH station at Exchange Place in Jersey City is Minor.

Major Encounters

In world-building terms, Major encounters “dominate” a 25-mile Atlas hex. As suggested, the list is only six entries long because there are few things that can legitimately command the area of an entire Atlas hex. Here’s the basic list:

1. Settlement
2. Fortress
3. Religious order
4. Ruin
5. Monster
6. Natural Phenomenon

I’ll deal with each of these individually over the next few weeks, then provide examples using the Minocra setting.

Settlement

Any organised and self-sufficient population of 500 or more. Roll for each category below:

ROLL  TYPE (POP.)              RULERS*      GOVERNMENT     ALIGN.    COMMERCE
 1    Town (3d6+2)x100         Geriatrics   Autocracy      Lawful    Food
 2    Town (3d6+2)x100         Thieves      Bureaucracy    Lawful    Textiles
 3    Town (3d6+2)x100         Magi         Monarchy       Neutral   Services
 4    City (3d4)x1000          Military     Oligarchy      Neutral   Slaves
 5    City (3d4)x1000          Merchants    Syndicracy     Neutral   Arms
 6    Free City (3d4)x1000     Scholars     Theocracy      Chaotic   Minerals
 7    Metropolis (3d6+2)x3000  Secret Cult  Dictatorship   -         Livestock
 8    City State (3d6+2)x3000  Adventurers  Confederacy    -         Booze
---------------
* Ruling body occupied by d6: 1-3 men; 4 women; 5-6 both
  Underlined entries are walled settlements

Each settlement has a quirk, determined via the Random Social Hooks table. This table works best for singular and independent settlements—it’s not generally workable for describing major settlements within a larger, cohesive kingdom (though your kingdom may not be cohesive…).

Minocra Settlements

Using the table above, here’s what I came up with for Minocra’s two major settlements (my results are shown to show you what I was working with).

Hex #1314: Town of Alaha (pop. 1,500)
(What I rolled: walled town ruled by geriatric autocracy; lawful; slaves)
Alaha is the walled capital of the dominion of the same name. The place is ruled by Ad-Uh-Falil, a posh (and now-elderly) adventurer who carved out his private Minocran kingdom decades ago, before the island became a colonial interest. Falil’s subjects are local Saba natives gone “soft,” though their loyalty to the exalted is assured as Alaha offers succor against the savage Usabir jungle clans. In fact, Falil is wont to launch periodic slaving expeditions to the capture the unwashed Usabir masses; those unlucky enough to be shackled are sent to the mainland to serve on the Padishah’s pleasure galleys. Falil considers Alaha the only real civilised area on Minocra and is not likely to welcome an influx of new rulers to compete with.

Kapuros

Hex #1121: City-Island of Kapuros (pop. 900)
(What I rolled: walled town ruled by thief autocracy; Neutral; minerals)
The city-island of Kapuros is a buccaneers’ haven, ruled by the self-styled sea-lord Mus Vaab. The city and the island are one in the same, as Kapuros is built atop the barnacled foundations of a ruined submarine city. Pirate captains visit the port to trade, resupply, replace hands, and debauch as their tastes (and stamina) allow. Kapuros’ permanent residents are mostly mainland refugees—outcasts, criminals, or drifters who serve (or serve with) the freebooters who make port here. They recognise Vaab’s authority only inasmuch as he provides protection (and that, of course, for a price). Among other intrigues, there are certain entrances to the Ruin Under the Waves, a reference to the stone and coral pile that supports the city, though few bother to take them—it is generally held that a corsair’s death on the waves is preferable to a burglar’s death beneath them.

Final Words

Two things: First, I like starting with settlements, if for no other reason than these will be of interest to PCs looking for supplies, training, rumours, and healing. The descriptions above represent the most I’ve really thought about Minocra, and as a result, they’ve become the contextual foundation for what will follow.

Second, when you’re writing up this stuff, it’s important to make the random results fit the terrain. Who builds a city in the middle of the ocean? Pirates, that’s who. How can it be in the middle of the ocean? Because it’s built on top of some fish-man ruins, that’s how. Score one for random rolls—I never would have thought of this on my own.

Last time, I said I’d “provide short descriptions for each location on the [Minocra campaign] map.” Actually, that was a pun. What I mean to say was I’d like to share some thoughts about writing up hex encounters.

These thoughts (which are mine) apply to both Major or Minor encounters (as described in part 2 of the Hex-based Campaign Design article). Since I’m wearing my pedant hat, let’s start with the basics.

Encounter types

In my OCD-coloured world, an individual encounter serves at least one of three purposes:

Sorta like this

Character advancement: Usually a combat encounter, an opportunity to grab some treasure, or both. Combat could be with a single monster type or two different kinds of monsters working in tandem. Encounters of this sort could be one-offs (think Book of Lairs) or linked into a larger adventure. Regardless, the encounter offers an opportunity to earn experience.

Player engagement: Usually a puzzle, trick, or riddle that relies on player skill to solve (as opposed to character ability). not to sound all philosophy-game-theory-meta guy, but it’s important to keep your players interested by jogging their brain cells. These encounters let players contribute using their own knowledge, instead of just having them roll dice against stuff on their character sheet

Campaign background: Usually something the PCs can explore, investigate, or ask the setting’s inhabitants about. Instead of earning experience or problem-solving, the PCs learn about their world. In most cases, the encounter is a person, place, or thing that could benefit the PCs, if only they could unlock its secrets, learn more about it, or connect it to something else in the setting. The ensuing research reveals details about the setting that the players and GM can build upon.

Encounter Qualities

The first rule of writing an encounter description is to keep it short. Short is always (and I mean every time always) better. There are about 800 reasons for this, chief among which are avoiding unnecessary work and thus reducing prep time.

To limit your focus to only the most important details, assume that your PCs will never visit this hex. Just jot down what immediately comes to mind and move onto the next encounter. Pretend each hex is queued up in the receiving line at your wedding. “Hi, Jack. How’s the spoon factory?” Next. “So glad you came, Alexa. Did you and your husband invest in that clove-mining operation?” Next. “Oh, Eustace, I’m so glad to see you’re eating solids again.” That sort of thing.

Of course, your PCs probably will visit the hex. But when they do, your short description will be all the more flexible. Now you can adjust or invent specifics in the context of the current adventure or, more broadly, the PCs’ previous encounters in the setting. Keeping the description short gives you the wiggle room you need to customise the encounter during play.

And during play is really where I’m going here. Back in my wide-eyed days of puzzling over the concept of dice with 12 sides, I wrote full-on adventure modules that covered everything. They were fun to write but useless to players. Too often, during play, I’d end up ignoring the details, realising that they weren’t helpful or even necessary from the players’ perspective. So I’d change change them to mesh with what the PCs were interested in at the time, frequently inventing new ones to tie up loose ends or creating new rabbit holes to explore.

So, learn this: lengthy details are your enemy. Instead, limit yourself to 80-120 words that cover:

First impressions: What do the PCs encounter? Is it a monster, a ruin, a knight mounted on a giant snail, a boat stuck to the side of a mountain? Put another way, what do the PCs interact with?

Key features: What results from the PCs’ interaction? Maybe a stand-up fight, a discovery, or an unfortunate event. Who knows? But the answer should depend on the PCs’ choices—how do they behave? will they choose greed over charity? will they help the Snail Knight or attack him? do they push the candy-like red button?

Lasting impressions: What’s memorable about the encounter? This doesn’t have to be some extraordinary, inexplicable, magical, holy-crap-you-just-summoned-Orcus! event. Maybe it’s a normal fight with opportunities for bold heroism, or a puzzle with a great reward, wondrous to behold. Or maybe it’s just a normal trap that forced Black Dungal to change his name to “Lefty.” Consider: what about this encounter would a player include in his session report?

Game mechanics: Where applicable, include game terms—die rolls, modifiers, attributes, save types, etc.—to connect the encounter to the game rules. You must include this. It not only helps the GM run the encounter, but it also helps represent outcomes in a way that impact the PCs mechanically. [1]

For Example

Here are a few quick examples: [2]

But more like this

Hex #1105: The Guardian (Hills)
The hills here are patrolled by a ghostly warden known as The Guardian (actually a leather-clad spectre mounted on a double-strength phase spider). Legend says that in life, The Guardian was a bandit lord who hid his spoils in small caches throughout the hills. How he died is unknown, but his attachment to gold prevented him from passing into the next world. Rumours abound that a map to his treasure stores is clutched in his dead hands, if only his body could be found.

Hex #0819: The Weeping Idol (Jungle)
A 16′ stone idol of a demonic, spine-headed humanoid stands covered with vines. Its white opal eyes stare blankly ahead, but if approached by a magic-user, the idol begins to weep as deep azure pupils appear in the opals and follow the mage’s movement. If the mage attempts to provide comfort or assuage the idol’s sorrow, he gains the idol’s sight for 1d4 days. Any attempt to remove the eyes causes the offender to weep constantly (CHA -2) until treated with Remove Curse.

Hex #1522: The Stone of Madness (Underdark)
A lone stalagmite stands in the centre of a broad and frequently trafficked Underdark tunnel. As the sole subterranean feature for miles, the stalagmite is the centuries-old target of Speak with Stone spells cast by travellers of all races, eras, and dispositions. Such diverse exposure, added to the lack of any natural sentience, has imposed a tinge of madness and diminished the rock’s capacity for coherent conversation. Consequently, there is a 3-in-6 chance that it provides non sequitur answers to questions posed (on a roll of 1-in-6, the stone behaves as if paranoid and offers deliberately false information).

Get Some

Coincidentally, Joe over at Inkwell Ideas, best known as the author of Hexographer, is holding a Hex Crawl Contest. He’s taking 12 submissions of eight hex encounter descriptions each by March 31, 2012 for a free copy of Hexographer Pro. At the time of this writing, Joe’s received six of the 12 entries, so make haste!

Final Words

OK, per usual, that took longer than expected. It is possible that I rambled a bit. But chances are you’ve overlooked that if you read this far. So, cheers for that.

If it’s not clear, all of the above reflects my preferences for creating and running a campaign. YMMV. That said, how do you write hex encounters? Why not include one in the comments?
_______________

1. The one exception to this rule is monster stats. Don’t include them, or rather, don’t include a full stat block. Primary reason is because it takes time, even if you’re just cutting and pasting from a sourcebook. Second, remember my advice about adding a lot of detail: don’t add a lot of detail. Stat blocks count as detail. What if, at runtime, you want to replace the orc guards with goblins? Shame on you for statting out orcs ahead of time. If you do have something specific in mind (like a really strong ogre), just translate it mechanically in the description (e.g., the ogre gets +2 damage due to strength).
2. The wise and ancient among you will discern hints of Judges Guild throughout. I make no apologies.

I’m working on the Isle of Minocra map and thought a quick tutorial would be useful.

For this project, I’m using MapGen2 to create the initial map, then importing it into Photoshop where I’ll superimpose one of my hex templates and add symbols.

MapGen2

I’m assuming you have some passing familiarity with MapGen2 and how it works. The trick is getting a screen capture of the map you want. I’ve tried several monitor resolution settings to get a decent on-screen size, but as long as the capture is square (i.e., same width and height), you’re fine.

1. Use the MapGen2 tool to create a map.
2. Select “Perlin” from the Island Shape section.
3. Click the “Random” button until you find an island shape you like.
4. Select the “2D Slopes” view.
5. Use a screen capture tool to copy the map image and convert it to PNG format.

Photoshop

Minocra GM Map

I’m assuming you are using Photoshop. If you don’t have Photoshop, you might try GIMP, which is free, and (as I understand it) supports many Photoshop-like features.

1. Create a new image that’s 8.5″ x 11″ and 300dpi (you want the high-res so that you can read the hex numbers later). Leave this image open in Photoshop.
2. Open the desired hex template in Photoshop (note: the PDF versions in the hex template download are 300dpi, so they’ll work fine).
3. Drag the hex template’s “Background” layer into the new image.
4. Open the MapGen2 image in Photoshop.
5. Drag the map’s “Background” layer into the new image.
6. In the new image, re-size the map image to fill the hex template.
7. Move the map image layer (Layer 2) below the hex template layer (Layer 1). The hex template will cover the map image.
8. Select the hex template layer (Layer 1) and change it from “Normal” to “Multiply.” This will make the white background of the hex template transparent so the map image shows through. [1]
9. Save the file in Photoshop’s native PSD format because you want to preserve the layers. (The file will be big (~41 MB) because it’s hi-res—if anyone knows how to make this file smaller, please share the knowledge.)

Symbols

Carta Normal Symbols (PDF)

Most mapping software packages include symbols. And, truth be told, most of these symbols are pretty good. However, if you’re working with image software to produce your maps, it’s best to have your symbols in the form of a font. This saves you the time of creating them yourself, and they’re easy to replicate with precision from map to map.

1. Download and install the Carta-Normal TrueType font. [2] N.B. Before the font shows up in Photoshop, you’ll need to save your work, close Photoshop, and re-open your map.
2. To place a symbol, select the Text tool and switch to the Carta-Normal font.
3. Type the letter or ALT-key combination of the symbol you want (see the Carta Normal Symbols PDF at right). Photoshop creates a new layer automatically, which I name after the hex number, but you can use whatever naming system works best for you.
4. Select the text and adjust the point size and colour to make it stand out on the map (I recommend a red, yellow, or orange to make it easy to see against the map background).
5. Select the text layer you’ve just created and apply an Outer Glow layer style.
6. In the Outer Glow style dialogue, change the Blend Mode to “Linear Dodge (Add)” and choose the “Foreground to Background” style from the Gradient Picker. This outlines the symbol with a white highlight.

Continue placing symbols on your map repeating the process at Step #3, above, until you’ve placed all the symbols you need by copying an existing symbol, moving it to a new spot on the map, and changing the character. This preserves the formatting and helps keep your symbols consistent. If desired, add a map key that describes what each symbol is (though you can easily refer to the Carta Normal Symbols PDF).

Last, if you’re into the OCD, don’t forget to label each symbol on the map (for random names, I like EBoN for its large number of culture libraries). Maybe draw a road or two. Whatevs.

Final Words

This is a quick and dirty tutorial (written by someone who’s not a Photoshop wizard). I’m certain the experienced among you can devise some shortcuts to reduce time spent (not to mention filesize), but this should be enough to get you going.

Next up, I’ll provide short descriptions for each location on the map, in a style that fits your busy GM schedule.

_______________

1. Thanks to Reese for pointing this out.
2. This is a free download from SearchFreeFonts.com. As far as I can tell, you’re free to use the font in your commercial work.

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about encounter tables. Like, two Earth months. So at the risk of prattling on even more about stuff you will doubtless figure out for yourselves, let’s move on to actually lighting this candle.

What We’re Doing

Yeah, I had to go back and check, too. The goal is to create a mini-campaign with a random map populated via random encounter tables. We’ve got the map, and plenty of encounter table advice, but true to my form, I need to throw in a couple more details.

First off (and I didn’t specify before), this will be a fantasy setting. I’m currently reading The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian [affiliate link], so I’m gonna steer in that direction. [1]

Second, I had decided that the sub-tropical island of Minocra is ripe for colonisation, so straight off, adventures will be carving out territory, protecting soft settlers, responding to threats, and exploring scary places. I have no details yet, but going forward, I absolutely will be connecting back to these dots.

Map Terrain

You’ll recall that I used MapGen2 to create the map. The author of this handy tool is Amit Patel, who created a terrain key for MapGen2 output.

However, I’m going to take a few liberties, as the map provides a good visual—you can easily see that brown areas are more arid, green areas are foresty, and grey/white areas are probably mountains. For better terrain definition, I suggest the Biomes view in the MapGen2 tool. [2]

Here’s a suggested terrain key you can use for all climates:

Terrain Key

Fixed encounters

Even though I plan to use random encounter tables to describe and populate the setting, it makes sense to create a few fixed locations to act as “hubs” of activity. Settlements, important ruins, and known places of dread need to be rooted, if for no other reason than to assure the PCs that there are some constants in the setting.

Minocra Fixed Encounters

I’ll go random with these fixed points, using the guidelines in part 2 of Hex-based Campaign Design, but only for Major encounters. [3] This means I’m going to roll a percentile die for each Atlas hex and compare the result to the hex’s “primary” terrain (on a hex map, this is would be the centre hex, but in this case, I’ll define it by whatever terrain type is most abundant). Also, because I’m in a sub-tropical clime, I’ll apply +5% to each roll.

Consolidating half-hexes on my Minocra map, that’s 30 rolls. There are 22 full Atlas hexes on the map, plus 16 half-hexes. I’ll roll individually for each Atlas hex, but because the half-hexes are predominately ocean terrain, I’ll simply make 8 rolls to cover them all and distribute the results where they look pretty. Here’s what I ended up with:

ATLAS HEX #     TERRAIN        ENCOUNTER
   02           Desert         Ruin (settlement abandoned; disease)
   03           Desert         Ruin (settlement abandoned; disease)
   04           Desert         Ruin (settlement abandoned; migration)
   07           Jungle         Fortress
   10           Savannah       Monster Lair (rare)
   12           Hills          Settlement
   13           Jungle         Fortress
   14           Desert         Monster Lair (very rare)
   17           Hills          Monster (rare)
   18           Hills          Ruin (settlement abandoned; migration)
   19           Savannah       Monster Lair (rare)
   20           Jungle         Religious order (Lawful)
BORDERING HALF-HEXES
  (x5)          Ocean          Natural (intense weather)
                               Natural (intense weather)
                               Religious Order (Neutral)
                               Fortress
                               Settlement

I rolled really low on my percentiles, so much so that 17 of my 30 Atlas hexes contain a fixed encounter. [4] The results, straight from the table, are shown above. The next step is to shape these results just a bit and fix their locations.

Final Words

I count this as progress. The random table for fixed encounters did exactly what I wanted, which was to give me idea starters. Looking at these en masse, and coupled with the Conan vibe, I can start to ask important questions. Like, why so many ruins? What was that disease and did it force the migrations? Who’s in those jungle fortresses? What’s a Lawful religious ordering doing in the rain forest, and what’s up with that settlement in the ocean?

The setting is starting to take shape.
____________

1. And don’t think I forgot about C’mpalla’s Saga, either. Because I didn’t.
2. But it doesn’t show elevation, so use the 2D Slopes view for that.
3. Ah, but what about Minor encounters you ask? You’ll see, kids. You’ll see.
4. These are legitimate rolls. I was tempted to fudge one of them, but I didn’t, so what you’re seeing is straight-up results, unblemished with the taint of bias. If dice wore chastity belts, my polyhedrals would still be virgins.

All this talk about encounter tables, and we’ve overlooked what some might consider an important detail: where do all these critters actually live in your setting? [1]

This is a big issue in terms of setting development, and it requires you to make a decision about planning ahead or doing stuff on the fly. As an advocate of the less-is-more approach, which describes your setting via game tools instead of narrative, I want the encounter tables to do as much of the heavy lifting as possible.

A Smartitude

The idea is to populate your setting via your random encounter tables. You’re going to create these tables anyway, and a combination of nested and dynamic tables does a great job of helping you describe your setting’s inhabitants and what they do.

But where they live is a different matter. Sandbox tradition demands that you populate your map with a number of fixed encounters, which occur when players visit them (or arrive in the hex containing them), then allow for random encounters as if they were merely wandering monsters. I’m suggesting that you populate your map with fixed encounters created via the random encounters tables. [2]

FrDave of Blood of Prokopius offered a possible solution when he wrote about random encounter tables:

Creatures don’t exist until they’re encountered, so you can put rare and unique stuff on the table, even if you don’t really “envision” it as being part of your setting. In fact, it’s not, until it’s encountered, at which point, you have a major campaign event in which something from the realm of fairytales and folklore is suddenly determined to be real. [Emphasis mine.]

This is S-M-R-T: Smart. FrDave’s approach gives you license to create encounter tables with any monster you might like to have in your setting. By subtle extension, monsters have no fixed lairs until they’re encountered, which is a exactly what we need for the dynamic, less-is-more approach.

Dynamic Monster Territory

Two assumptions: (1) you’re mapping on a regional hex template of 125×125 miles, broken into 5-mile hexes, and (2) all monsters have a home, or at least a semi-permanent lair where they eat, sleep, and make little monsters.

When a monster is encountered, you can assume that the encounter occurs in the monster’s home territory, the range of which is roughly proportional to the creature’s size. Ordinarily, this territory is defined as some neat and tidy radius surrounding the monster’s fixed lair. But that really only works if you’re planning ahead by placing fixed lairs and territorial borders on your map. We’re not doing that.

Instead, we’re populating the map via random rolls, which may or may not indicate the presence of an actual monster, whose identity we don’t know until the roll is resolved. So while we can assume that an encounter occurs inside a monster’s territory, we don’t know how big that territory is or where its lair is in that territory.

Percent in Liar

Time for another tweak to the encounter table. Next to each monster, we’ll add a Range value:

Now with Range

{Range}
This is the size of the monster’s territory in 5-mile hexes, based on monster size:

• Smaller than Small: 0-3 (1d4-1) hexes
• Small, Medium, or Large: 0-7 (1d8-1) hexes
• Bigger than Large:  0-11 (1d12-1) hexes

You’ll note that these values are not only smaller than those suggested in Monster Turf, but also variable in size. This is intentional, and ultimately gives you the flexibility to account for more monster lairs in the available space of a Regional Hex map.

Here are some optional (cumulative) modifiers to the range’s size:

• Monster is especially territorial or an apex predator: +1 hex
• Monster is a flyer or can travel great distances with ease: +2 hexes
• Monster is solitary: -1 hex
• Monster is unintelligent: -1 hex
• Monster is subterranean: -2 hexes [3]

For our purposes, the minimum range value is zero (0) hexes.

The territory can be any shape but the hexes must be continuous. This means that the territory may include sub-optimal terrain for the monster, or that it might overlap the territory of another. Naturally, either possibility can suggest a monster’s motivations during the encounter.

The range value not only determines the size of the monster’s territory, but can also suggest how far away it is from its lair. A range of zero (0) means that the lair is in the hex where the monster’s encountered. If the range result is the maximum for the die, then the monster is expanding its borders and is on unfamiliar ground (and possibly lost). For values greater than zero but less than the maximum, assume the lair occupies the most optimal terrain in the territory.

Final Words

There is one consequence of this approach: Your setting will get crowded over time, as more random encounters end up creating more territories and lairs.

But this actually makes sense. Monster populations will change over time, especially with adventurers rampaging about. The PCs might encounter trolls, track them to their lair, and (if they can destroy them) revert the troll’s territory to wilderness… where something else (via another random encounter) is bound to move in. [4]

Let me know if this makes sense to you, and what you’d change to make it better.
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1. And by setting, I mean the island mini-campaign that I promised we’d make a few weeks ago. Really, I am coming to that.
2. Which is not to say that you can’t deliberately place some fixed lairs or settlements—by all means, drop a human town here or a giant bee mound there. The goal here is simply to let the encounter tables populate the areas you haven’t figured out.
3. Subterranean monsters have underground territory, but may have access to the surface through one or more hexes.
4. And the resulting need to be ever-vigilant against chaos, monsters, blah, blah, blah, is what keeps adventures motivated, busy, and paid. If monster territories operate as a revolving door, you’ll always have a source of adventure hooks to give the PCs something to do.

I’d like to direct your attention to a new product called Chimerapedia. “What,” you ask, “is Chimerapedia?” It’s this:

What It Is

Chimerapedia is an electronic version of The Chimera RPG formatted for NBOS’ The Keep campaign management tool. This format allows you to edit, update, and re-organise the rules however you like. The Keep also supports HTML and RTF exports, full search, and it integrates seamlessly with Inspiration Pad Pro and Character Sheet Designer.

Chimerapedia is not a PDF, so you can’t download it and start reading. Instead, you need to install The Keep, which acts as a “platform” for Chimera. Once you import Chimerapedia, you can use The Keep’s native tools to browse and manipulate the Chimera content.

As the Welsh Piper releases new rules, supplements, and revisions, you can update the Chimerapedia simply by importing the new material. The Chimerapedia Core includes an edited version of Chimera Basic, updated with material from The Welsh Piper site and other revisions. Other volumes will follow, each containing expanded rules and new content.

Why The Keep?

If PDFs represent the first generation of pen-and-paper RPGs offered in electronic format, The Keep represents the second. The difference isn’t just between static and dynamic—it’s about utility and keeping current.

Chimerapedia Core

My goal is to provide Chimera in an interactive format that lets you edit the rules, add your own tweaks, and automate common tasks like random table rolls and NPC generation. These features are doubly useful if you bring a laptop to the gaming table—now the rulebook isn’t just a reference, it’s a tool that lets you roll on random tables, do searches, or even make updates while you’re playing.

These are the functions that we’ve been told to expect from RPGs, whose rules invariably tell us to change what we want, and add house variants as desired. And for the creative GM, who creates his own tables, adds his own monsters, and develops his own settings, what’s more suitable than a ruleset whose format allows easy updates and additions?

But the dynamic format is also a time-saver: The Keep lets me spend my time more productively: writing material directly in The Keep without worrying about layout, artwork, and all the other ancillary tasks related to publishing PDFs. New content and revisions take minutes and hours instead of days and weeks.

Next Steps

The Chimerapedia Core will be supported by supplemental volumes, each containing either rule expansions (e.g., full Ability descriptions, new powers, etc.), setting material (e.g., Swords of Telm and The World of Trid), or campaign development tools (e.g., sandbox construction kit and tools written for Inspiration Pad Pro or Character Sheet Designer).

The Keep itself—rated 5 stars—is available on RPGNow and provides a solid campaign management platform you can use with any game. Welsh Piper customers receive a 15% discount code when they purchase Chimerapedia.

This is somewhat of an experiement—to my knowledge, this format is not used elsewhere. But I strongly believe in the potential, not just for utility, but also for GM productivity (myself included).

As always, comments and suggestions welcome!

Hundreds of years before the dawn of history
Lived a strange race of people… the Druids
No one knows who they were, or… what they were doing

— “Stonehenge” Spinal Tap

We’re four posts into this series and I’ve not yet managed to elevate the discussion about encounter tables beyond their basic die-roll-encounter-type form.

But I think the extra time was worth it. At the very least, by now you should have enough information to make decisions about when to use a nested table or when to rely on a bell curve vs. an equal-weight distribution. And, hey, I’ve learned some math, too. Win-win.

Dynamic Encounters

My model for dynamic encounter tables is inspired by Noisms over at Monsters And Manuals. It’s a “noun-verb-object” format that notes what you encounter, what they’re doing, and what they’re doing it to. It’s a scant treatment, but that’s rather the point: As Noisms puts it, the format forces the GM to come up with a narrative to connect the pieces together.

Aside from the extra detail this format provides, the “forced” creativity is what makes the table truly useful. In that spirit, I’d like to try another route to the same destination.

Here’s the Insect (Crawler) sub-table from before; roll separate d6s for each of the additional columns:

Bugs Plus!

Wants (noun)
This is whatever the Subject is after. It’s always a noun, but it could be anything that makes sense in your setting. You can create sub-tables of nouns to drill down from vague (e.g., [Food] or [Treasure]) to specific (e.g., “Carrots” or “The Egg of Mantumbi“).

In all cases, the Subject utilises his most effective tools to get what he wants—cunning, stealth, diplomacy, tricks, magic, or brute force—whatever is most expedient. It does not mean he is unnecessarily rash and incautious. Unless perhaps hindered by a Complication (see below), the Subject works to the best of his ability.

Complication (adjective)
This is something that colours the encounter, and it can apply to the Subject, the thing it Wants, the environment, or the circumstances under which the encounter occurs. It is always an adjective, but again, could be anything that makes sense in your setting, and also again, you can also create sub-tables to whatever level of detail you desire (e.g., general complications like [Wounded] or [Insane] , or specifics like “Bleeding” or “Delusional”) .

At its core, the Complication is simply a way to nuance the encounter and make it more interesting and challenging for the players than just a roll for initiative—that’s why it’s a complication. Feel free to ignore or re-roll as you see fit.

Interpreting Results

This is the fun part: piecing the words together to make up a decent encounter. Just off the top of my head, how about:

5, 4, 5: Hunting Spider wants Shiny Things complicated by Supernatural
There are silvery nuggets woven into the spider’s web, and they have magical properties.

6, 1, 4: Swarm wants Food complicated by Controlled
A locust swarm is sent by a sorcerer to plague the insubordinate villagers he rules.

3, 2, 3: Tiger Beetle wants a Mate complicated by Insanity
Clearly, this bug is cuckoo for copulation—best stay out of its way!

Tips

I recommend you start with the nested encounter tables and drill down normally. Use the format above when you get to the last sub-table. This lets you customise the options to fit the encounter type. In other words, humans and bugs have different Wants and Complications—this is a great way to illustrate those differences.

That said, you can fill in the Wants and Complications columns with any words you want . Naturally, this gives you an excellent opportunity to customise the setting via your choice of things and descriptors.

If you’re stuck for nouns and adjectives, check out the tools at WordGenerator.net. The only drawback is that you get your words one at a time, so you may have to do a lot of clicking before you find something you can use.

Final Words

I like the Wants/Complication approach because it’s very open-ended, though that can sometimes require more brain-effort from the GM. Like Noisms’ format, this approach does let you tweak the possible results as your setting develops. In that respect, these are truly dynamic tables.

So, simple question: what are your thoughts, and how would you improve it?

By the way, I apologise for my posting infrequency lately—while work is busy and interesting, it’s taken up a lot of time. I don’t think the work load will abate anytime soon, but neither is this site going away. Thanks for your patience.

Because I’m a super-current and on top of things, here are my responses to Zak’s thought-provoking questions. I’d like to say that my delayed entry is due to careful consideration of each answer. But no. In fact, my “delayed entry” is because I’m experiencing not-insignificant time management challenges as work grows super-crazy-busy. If only corporate America would realise that there’s more to life than web property management…

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?
Wand of Tears for Fears: This is a white ivory bar with raised black stripes. The wand is activated by a command word, which is the title of any Tears for Fear song. The effect is implied by the title, with details described by the player (subject to GM approval, with damage or duration limits based on the wielder’s level). Targets are allowed a saving throw to avoid the wand’s effects, but if the player sings any of the song’s lyrics or the complete chorus, effects are halved even if the save is made. The wand does not use charges; instead, each command word works only once. When all titles have been exhausted, the wand transforms into 2d4 pearl-like Orzaballs, which, if individually consumed, grant a +1 to reaction rolls, but at the cost of acrimony from party members for 1 round per Orzaball created.

2. When was the last time you GMed?
About a year ago, playtesting Chimera 3.0. I want to get a regular online game via ScreenMonkey or possibly Google+, but no joy yet on that front.

3. When was the last time you played?
Sometime in 2000. It was Call of C’thulhu and I ran a dilettante named Major Lord Trevor Percy Von Bottomton III, Esq.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven’t run but would like to.
Baron Karhonnen offers gold and titles to any who help him retake the Lost City of Morssk from the Skeleptron sub-men and resurrect it to its former glory.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?
Depends on my mood. If I’m annoyed with them for prolonged and pointless argument, I roll copiously for wandering monsters and describe threatening things. If their confusion amuses me, I try to spin as many simultaneous d10s as I possibly can.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?
The trick is having something you can (1) eat with one hand, (2) doesn’t leave a mess on your fingers, and (3) can be consumed in 3 bites or less. This includes peanut M&Ms, Sour Patch Kids, Ritz crackers with Easy Cheese, cocktail weenies, and Bagel Bites. Also, there must be nachos.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?
Just the opposite – it’s energetic socialising with dice.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?
Trying to hire an assassin in a really seedy corner of an unfriendly city, and not knowing how to ask without making more enemies, Scabbous walks into the tavern, stabs the bar with his dagger, and asks the innkeeper, “Do you know anyone who knows how to use this?” At least it got the conversation rolling…

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?
Depends on our mood. The setting has elements of both, so there’s opportunity for serious things for when we want grave storytelling, and silly things when we want to blow off steam.

10. What do you do with goblins?
They are the guerrilla fodder of Chaos, and they harass the crap out of PCs. Goblins attack to wound, never engage in a stand-up fight, and are found in every environment. They’re easily startled but always come back in greater numbers.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?
A map of the NYC subway system. Three words: Five-Borough Megadungeon. [1]

12. What’s the funniest table moment you can remember right now?
We tried a rule where you only got monster XP for landing the death blow. Rick the Druid ran around attacking any foe who was down to 10hp or less, basically poaching the XP from the PC who did all the work. He would yell “POACHED!” when he did this, and then came up with variations like “POICHED!” “PACHED!” “PEACHED!” and PO-ACHED!” After the 3rd or 4th time, the rest of the party turned on him. Ironic End: during the battle, Black Dangle the thief couldn’t resist temptation, did a backstab, and yelled “PUCHED!” (with a “K” sound) as he stole the XP from the other PCs. And so it goes…

Why not?

13. What was the last game book you looked at–aside from things you referenced in a game–why were you looking at it?
Avalon Hill’s Eldarad: The Lost City. I love the concept of an entire city in ruins; settled by bandits, monsters, and other riff-raff; and being slowly reclaimed by adventurers and their red-shirted allies hired by greedy nobles.

(I’m surprised to learn that Eldarad is so apparently reviled by the Runequest community—I look forward to using it as a model for a new Chimera island mini-setting I want to launch.)

14. Who’s your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?
Probably the nostalgia talking, but I have to go with Erol Otis. Possibly Holloway, who I realise has a completely different style.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?
I don’t think genuinely afraid. But sometimes definitely anxious that there’s a TPK on the immediate horizon. Heh.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn’t write? (If ever)
Keep on the Borderlands with my college group in the early 90s. Re-skinned for Greyhawk and AD&D…the PCs cleared out everything—my girlfriend at the time (playing a ranger) was genuinely upset about what to do with the orc babies.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?
I have this fantasy about re-doing the attic with lots of bookshelves, an entire wall devoted to displaying minis, a projection table, sound system, mood lights, and comfy chairs with swing-out writing surfaces and built-in (felt-lined) dice rolling troughs. Possibly wood paneling or shag carpet for just a touch of 70s.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?
I’m sure there are lots, but looking at my bookshelf, I’d say Moldvay Basic and Savage Worlds. Such different approaches to infinite options…

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?
Moorcock’s Elric saga and Aqua Teen Hunger Force. [2] Though, while the genres are quite disparate, it’s true that they both thrive on “random.”

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?
One who’s willing to take risks. I realise that (subconsciously, perhaps) I tend to reward risk-takers more often than not. Maybe because they make the game more entertaining? Or maybe I’m just more amused at the desperate and cloying nonsense that inevitably results…

21. What’s a real life experience you’ve translated into game terms?
In my Boy Scout days, I was very much into camping, hiking, wilderness survival, and making fire out of eyeglass lenses and orange peels. These things tend to colour my hex crawls…

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn’t?
Why isn’t there a version of HyperCard specifically for RPGs? I mean, yes, I know there are lots of software packages for campaign management, character generation, combat tracking, treasure and encounter creation, etc. But they’re all separate, too specialised, and they don’t talk with each other. I want a single platform that’s easy to extend, with any media type, a simple scripting language, and portability so we can all write and share in the same format.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn’t play? How do those conversations go?
My wife, who recognises  (and supports the fact) that I get a lot out of the hobby, but doesn’t necessarily understand the attraction. When I talk about it, she very patiently pats my head and says, “That’s nice, dear.” Occasionally, she makes a face, but hey, I love her still.

_______________

1. Transport to and from Staten Island via teleport only.
2. The episode with the “Belt of Foreigner” inspired the Wand of Tears for Fears.

“…the dice are your tools. Learn to use them properly, and they will serve you well.”

- Gary Gygax, 1st Ed. Dungeon Master’s Guide,1979

The last post dealt with the difference between the frequency and probability of items on a random encounter table, and introduced a simple bell-curve table using 1d4+1d6. We’ve gotten far afield from creating and populating a mini-setting, but the discussion about tables and die rolls is worth having, so I’d like to spend one last post talking about some other (ahem) facets of the dice that may help you as a GM.

Dice Basics

Some of this is no doubt familiar, but I’m hoping that even the most experienced among you can grab a few bits of value.

When rolling a single die, the number of possible results [R] equals the number of sides [S]. The probability of rolling any single result (as a percentage chance) equals [1 / S]. Thus, when rolling 1d6, there is a 16.7% chance of getting a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6.

When rolling multiple dice, the number of possible results [R] equals the highest possible value [H] minus the lowest [L], plus 1 [(H - L) + 1]. Thus, when rolling 2d6, there are 11 possible results (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12).

The mean value of any die roll (regardless of how many dice you’re rolling) is the highest value plus the lowest, divided by 2 [(H + L) / 2]. Thus, the mean of a 2d6 roll is 7; the mean of 1d4+1d6 is 6; the mean of 5d4 is 12.5, etc.

Bell Curves

When rolling multiple dice, you automatically skew the results along a bell curve, where the values around the mean have a higher chance of occurring than values at the high and low extremes.

This is because when you add the result of each die, there are more combinations that sum to median values. Conversely, there are fewer die combinations that add to values at the high and low ends. This is well-known to most gamers, who are used to rolling 3d6 for ability scores. When you roll 3d6, for example, there is only dice combination that gives a 3 {1,1,1} or an 18 {6,6,6}, but there are 27 dice combinations that add up to a score of 10.

The total number of dice combinations for any roll is the product of the highest value of each die. Thus, 1d6 provides 6 combinations; 2d6 provides 36; 3d6 provides 216 combinations, 1d4+1d6 provides 24 combinations, etc.

The probability of rolling a particular value equals the number of combinations that add up to that value divided by the total number of combinations possible. Thus, when rolling a 3d6, the chance of rolling a 3 is [1 / 216] or 0.5%; the chance of rolling a 10 is [27 / 216] or 12.5%. Chronicler Isiah over at The Dark Fortress has a great set of 3d6 probability charts illustrating this familiar curve.

Calculating the Odds

You may have seen tables that lay out the value and probability of die results. The problem is figuring out how many dice combinations add up to each value—it’s time consuming, can be error prone, and all sorts of dull. [1]

Good news is that it’s very easy to create your own probability tables for rolling a pair of dice, which I daresay is sufficient for most encounter tables. I say this for one simple reason: the more dice you roll, the more results your table will produce, which means the more “slots” you have to populate.

Back in the day, TSR provided an encounter table template using 1d8+1d12, granting a range of 2-20. It has a nice curve, but it means you have to supply 19 results. If you’re using nested encounter tables, that can be too beaucoup. Better (says I) to stick with smaller ranges, like the 1d4+1d6 combo I suggested earlier (wherein only 9 results are required, which is just faster and easier to work with).

But, the topic here is figuring out the probabilities associated with the dice combination you want. Note that this only works for 2d-something. If you’re rolling 3d6, 4d5, or 10d8+9d3, the guidelines below won’t work and you’ll have to do more math. And I think we all know how I feel about that…

Let’s start with a basic 2d6 toss. We know that there are 36 possible roll combinations (e.g. {1,1} {1,2} {1,3}, etc.). Here’s a quick way to figure out the curve.

Start by creating a table, with columns for Values, Combinations, and Probability. Second step is to list the Values. For 2d6, they look like this:

2d6 (I)

Determining combinations is key, but it’s easier than you might think. The secret is this: at the roll’s mean value, the number of combinations equals the highest value on the lowest die rolled. For 2d6, the mean value is 7, and there are 6 combinations that get you there. This is the high point of the curve, and the number of combinations gets lower on either side, until you get to 1 combination on each of the highest and lowest values.

In the Combinations column, enter 1 for the first row (i.e., there is 1 combination that grants a value of 2). Enter 2 in the second, 3 in the third, etc, until until you reach the median value.
Then, reverse it, so that your table looks like this:

2d6 (II)

Finally, determine probability by dividing the combination figure by the total number of combinations. For 2d6, the total combinations possible is 36, so do some math and fill in your table like so:

2d6 (III)

But what if you’re doing something funky like 1d8+1d12? It’s the same procedure, with a slight twist:

1. There are 96 roll combinations (8 * 12 = 96)
2. The result range is 2-20
3. The median value is 11 [(2 + 20 = 22) / 2 = 11]
4. There are 8 combinations that garner the median value (8 equals the highest value on the lowest die rolled)

Create your table as above, filling in results from 2-20. Enter your combinations the same way, starting with 1 and progressing to 8. However, you’ll note the progression doesn’t go all they way to 11—it stops at 9, like so:

1d8+1d12 (I)

Now what?

Here’s what: Start filling in the combinations at the other end of the result set, like this:

1d8+1d12 (II)

What to do with results 10, 11, and 12? Well, not surprisingly, they also have 8 combinations each. It’s a quirky bit of math that occurs because you’re using different die types. As a result, the curve peaks at several points, but still along the median value, which in this case is 11.

Fill in those bits, and your final table looks like this (I’ve included the actual combinations as proof of the system):

1d8+1d12 (III)

Final Words

OK, some stupid dice tricks that I hope are useful to you. Remember that the bell curve probability method described above only works for 2d-something combos.

I think this wraps up all that I want to say about die rolls and probabilities. Next post, I promise we’ll get back to actual encounter tables.
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1. Or, you can ignore all of this nonsense and get on over to AnyDice.com, which will spit out the probability table of any die combination you want. Thanks again to Roger for bringing this to my (our) attention.

First off, I’m really happy that last week’s post was helpful. However, I do want to apologise for my math error, and for my disdain of bell curves. So let’s set things aright…

Frequency vs. Probability

Last week, I proposed breaking down encounter tables by frequency: 40% common, 30% uncommon, 20% rare, and 10% very rare. I went on to say that you didn’t have to limit your table results to four entries. If you were building a 1d10 table, for example, you could split up the 1-4 Common range  to populate your table with more than one Common entry.

However, as Roger correctly points out, this alters the probability of Common results when you make your 1d10 roll. My math-deficient brain had to puzzle over this a few times, but Roger is right, and I want point out my error in the hopes that others won’t make (or continue to believe in) the same mistake I did. I’ll use the same example as in my reply to Roger:

Let’s assume I have a 1d10 table of spells, like this:

1: hold portal (1st-level)
2: light (1st-level)
3: magic missile (1st-level)
4: read magic (1st-level)
5: knock (2nd-level)
6-7: web (2nd-level)
8: dispel magic (3rd-level)
9: fireball (3rd-level)
0: wizard eye (4th-level)

Strictly speaking–looking at the table only–40% of the results give a 1st-level spell, 30% of the results give a 2nd-level spell, 20% give a 3rd-level spell, and 10% give a 4th-level spell. That’s frequency.

However, each 1st-level spell has a 1-in-10 chance of coming up; this is no different than the chance of rolling up a 4th-level spell (i.e., 1-in-10). That’s probability.

Thanks for bearing with me on that one, and thanks to Roger for patiently pointing it out my mistake in a helpful way.

Bell Curves

(1d4 + 1d6)

I suggested (and continue to suggest) using straight-up 1d10, 1d20, or 1d100 tables. They’re easier to create, chiefly because it’s easier to calculate the frequency and probability ranges you want. That said, there is something to be said for a mixed-die roll that creates a bell curve.

One possibility is rolling 1d6 + 1d4. This presents nine results in a range of 2-10, so the frequency of each result represents roughly 11.1% of the available numerical values on the table.

However, when you roll 1d6 + 1d4, there are 24 possible die combinations. Certain values on the table can result from more than one die combination. As a result, the probability of each result is quite different, as shown below:

Put another way, this curve gives the following probabilities of encounter frequency:

• Common: 12/24 (50%; Chimera guideline is 40%)
• Uncommon: 6/24 (25%; Chimera guideline is 30%)
• Rare: 4/24 (17%; Chimera guideline is 20%)
• Very Rare: 2/24 (8%; Chimera guideline is 10%)

So while this isn’t as “neat” as the straight-up 1d10 table, it does provide a workable equivalent. I haven’t decided if I want to use this, but thought it might be a good alternative, particular for “end-line” encounter tables that don’t have sub-tables (assuming you want to keep weighted probability in the mix).

Final Words

While this isn’t what I wanted to talk about this week, I think it’s important to get all the table math and formatting out of the way. Trust me, it’ll make the next step of turning your encounter tables to 11 that much easier.