Random tables are slow. Random tables generate worse content than just writing the module. But they take up less space on the page and demand less memory from the GM. So maybe random tables would work best as the smaller snowflakes in a Sierpiński triangle.

Random tables can only produce fast results when they say ‘2D6 goblins’ with ‘1D6 copper pieces’. Add in a morale chart, a table to see what the goblins want, and the other information we’d expect from even the shortest pre-written encounter, and you find the scene turns into a GM pondering their dice for five minutes while everyone turns to their phones.

Not a lot of stories use the second person singular perspective. Fewer use the second person plural. But this is the primary perspective of dungeon-delving modules, Chtulhian investigations, and space-faring adventures.

Few adventures within Dungeon Magazine’s comes with boxtext, and most of this boxtext comes at the start in a block of a dozen paragraphs, spread across multiple pages. Here’s one such introduction:

As you enter through the large doors, you are suddenly confronted by a massive, 8’-tall humanoid with long yellow fangs protruding from his upper jaw. He stares down at you with great black eyes and empty white pupils. After an empty silence, during which thoughts of or drawing your sword have crossed your mind a dozen times or more, he suddenly breaks into a wide grin and begins to chuckle deeply.

Read More…

People like basic rules, so BIND should have basic rules (I thought). It didn’t quite work out that way. ‘Basic isn’t easy to define’, and not worth the time arguing about. But the game has developed a better split: necessary, and requested rules.

The little booklets has five sections: actions, combat, travel, weight, and magic. Every game will have those elements, because Fenestra’s magic, and things are heavy, and the players will have to go somewhere because the fantasy genre means travel.

Chaotician Writer of Mastodon asked, if zany encounter tables are boring, what makes a good encounter table? ‘Return to White Plume Mountain’ makes a good encounter table, because:

• It’s fast,
• grounded,
• repeatable, and
• it develops.

White Plume Wandering Monster Table

The first set is rolled Outside the mountain. The second column shows encounters Inside. The last shows the mountain’s Nucleus.

I’m going roll for encounters, just to see what comes up.

I’ve been thinking about different structures for encounter tables.

Highest & Lowest

Roll 2D6 and check the highest and lowest scores:

• Deer are encountered when the highest number is 1. This makes them rare, and they only have one reaction: run!
• Traders are uncommon out here, but twice as common than deer. They may flee, or be friendly.
• Elves may be friendly, skittish, or simply stalk the PCs for a while, observing them.
• Military units have en equal chance to do anything.

Each creature can gain any reaction on its own number or lower, so the chart assigns certain reactions to certain creatures.

If I had to make a spell-system for Oglaf, it would be this:

• You can only cast spells with a level equal or higher than the last spell you cast.
• Once you cast a spell, you cannot cast it again for a number of rounds equal to its level.

You want to cast Fireball? Let’s warm up with a cantrip first. Yea, Burning Hands works!

Acid Arrow? Yea, that’s some proper magic!

Using action points instead of initiative has been great. It works like this:

Just Go!

We just start, then whoever said they hit the bartender spends an Action Point. Most characters have 3. Once everyone’s spent their Action Points, a new round begins.

The table doesn’t have that feeling of ‘combat!, wait, no, roll initiative, record it, wait for it, who’s first? okay-go-roll-go’.

Every Initiative System Fixed

The table sometime uses ‘round the clock’ initiative (left-of-the-GM starts, then round the table). Once someone runs out of Action Points, they stop taking actions, but you still go round the table until nobody can act.

Reviewing RPGs seems unreasonable work. Far too many have tried their hand at the seemingly-easy task of writing one, and even worse: sometimes writing really is that easy. Vampire: The Masquerade’s first ’edition’ looks like a series of short stories, but it had plenty of fresh ideas in there. Gamers, GMs, and writers want reviews, but not many want to review. The few times someone’s sent me something included half-baked nothing scrawls, and a few others with excellent ideas, but horrifying layout. So what’s to be done? I have two offers.

Random tables of D100 zany-silly things that might happen in your adventure need to cease, because they’ve stepped out of bounds.

I get the motivation:

• emergent stories are great, it’s what the game’s all about.
• dice are great at ’emerging’ those elements which become the story - the random challenge, the unexpected situation.

The theory’s still sound, the practice remains fun, but so many of the OSR books I see on youtube show-cases and itch.io download step into the wrong arena, and try to pass off underdeveloped ideas by making them into lists and adding a die-roll.

• The most important things you should do to improve your GMing skills depend on you: they are unique or rare.
• Generic ‘how to GM’ articles and books will not help with anything unique to you.
• So generic ‘how to GM’ writing do not contain the most important advice.

If I could go back in time and give my younger self only one piece of GMing advice, it would be ‘control your stutter’. It takes some effort, but it’s possible for me to remove most of my natural stutter. I won’t read about stutters in any on-line advice; a stutter works differently for lots of people, and many people with a stutter will find it becomes worse when they try to kill the habit.