Table: Forest Encounter

What or whom will you encounter in the forest? This is the fifth table of the Table of Misplaced Tables.

Forest Encounter

Roll 1d6

1. You encounter a wolfwere dressed like a typical grandmother. It has the power to transform into Graham Chapman.

2. You happen upon a ring of toadstools. Don't dance around it or you'll turn into a toadstool yourself. If you eat one, well, that's another random table.

3. You chance upon a house constructed entirely of candy and baked goods. If you're short enough, the resident will try to eat you when she catches you gnawing on her domicile. If you're taller, she forces you to renovate her home for 1d6 months.

4. You trip over, and enrage, a lion, which happens to have a thorn in its paw.

5. You step on a venomous snake. If you apologize quickly enough, you will be spared its scathing sarcasm and biting insults. In the best of circumstances, it's quite the amiable conversationalist.

6. You meet a werebear in mid-transformation. It's preoccupied with preventing fires.

[This table originally appeared here (#RPGaDay2020 6. "Forest").]

Table: Connection

How are the player characters connected? This is the fourth table of the Table of Misplaced Tables.

Connection

Roll 1d8

1. mutual friend
2. mutual enemy
3. are all kin
4. are all colleagues
5. are all former (or current) classmates
6. are all fugitives
7. are all survivors
8. met at a party/festival/gathering

[This table originally appeared here (#RPGaDay2019 30. "Connection").]

Table: Idea

Here's an idea... In your next RPG adventure/module/scenario, every player character must be played as if the player were a certain well known comedian. So, for example, your Ulric Hellbringer is now "Ulric Hellbringer (as played by Jerry Stiller)." This is the third table of the Table of Misplaced Tables.

Idea

Roll 1d6

1. The GM assigns each player a comedian.
2. Each player chooses a comedian.
3. Each player chooses a comedian for the player to their left.
4. Each player chooses a comedian for the player to their right.
5. Each player's comedian is determined randomly.
6. Choose one or roll again.

I never said it was a GOOD idea.

[This table originally appeared here (#RPGaDay2019 26. "Idea").]

Table: Surprise

When you regain consciousness, you find yourself on a beach. Your only possession is...

(This is the second table of the Table of Misplaced Tables.)

Surprise

Roll 1d6

1. a knife
2. a stainless steel windproof lighter
3. a 30' rope
4. a Sherman tank
5. a UFO
6. a birthday cake

[This table originally appeared here (#RPGaDay2019 23. "Surprise").]

Table: Found Familiar

If you Find a Familiar, let it know there's a magic-user looking for it. Otherwise, said magic-user has a 25% chance of screwing up the spell and won't be able to cast it again for another year. This is the first table of the Table of Misplaced Tables.

Found Familiar

Roll 1d10

1. Ilemauzar
2. Pyewackett
3. Pecke in the Crowne
4. Griezzell Greedigutt
5. Vinegar tom [sic]
6. Holt
7. Jarmara
8. Sacke & Sugar
9. Newes
10. None. You have a famulus instead.

#ADnD #1stLevelSpells #FindFamiliar #1stEditionProblems

[This table originally appeared here (#RPGaDay2019 7. "Familiar").]

Table of Misplaced Tables

April is Random Generator Month, but this is September, which is an honorary random generator month when it suits us, and this time we are collecting the random tables scattered throughout the #RPGaDay articles of Applied Phantasticality and reproducing them in their own Random Generator Month master table for everyone's convenience. Enjoy the early autumn nonsense!

Table of Misplaced Tables

Roll 1d?

1. Roll on the Found Familiar Table!
2. Roll on the Surprise Table!
3. Roll on the Idea Table!
4. Roll on the Connection Table!
5. Roll on the Forest Encounter Table!

[Results of the Table of Misplaced Tables will be added daily (or sporadically) throughout the month.]

Blogger Blahs

Has anyone else noticed that the Blog List gadgets on Blogger are only sporadically displaying up-to-date posts? It has been getting worse. I don't know whether this is only affecting my blogs or it's a system-wide issue, but it certainly doesn't help the cause (namely, in this case, the support of the hobby and our fellow bloggers). Blogging is already an uphill battle. We should at least be able to depend on the basic functionality of the blog itself to act as a blog. This is disheartening.

Hit or Miss: Missed

In case you haven't seen my latest notes in "Hit or Miss" or "Hit or Miss in Detail," I decided not to continue my thoughts on the topic because Greg Stolze already discussed the topic in forum.rpgnet.com in February 2010. Of course, the existence of this article disproves my decision, but here we are. It was either this or I not spend the next few minutes writing this and posting it to my unread blog. And then where would we be?

So, I guess I'll just summarize some of what I intended to write because, for all I know, Greg Stolze and others on that forum may have already stated everything worth stating on the topic, and I would rather be blown out of existence by a sphere of annihilation than unintentionally reiterate something on the Internet.

To summarize, for whatever edition of Dungeons & Dragons or its simulacra or retro-clones you are playing, characters have hit points equal to their Constitution (or Stamina, etc.) and a random number of miss points for each level (equivalent to the hit points they would have gained for each level). Various editions use different dice for different classes. Heed them or houserule them as thou wilt.

I think I would simplify my earlier thoughts on significant wounds thusly: Once hit points are lost, the victim's attack rolls, initiative rolls, and saving throws (or attribute checks) are penalized at −1; once hit points are reduced to 50% or less, they are penalized at −2. Penalties disappear as hit points are healed (−2 when hit points rise above 50%; −1 when all hit points are healed). Critical hits remain unchanged for whichever version of the rules are being used. Actual hits, which reduce hit points, are therefore consequential, but remain uncomplicated.

And that's (probably) all I'll say about this topic.

(Drat. That's far more than I intended to say.)

RPGaDay2026 Is Nigh (Over There)

RPGaDay2026 is nigh, and this year I shall be observing it exclusively (probably) through Decidedly Six-Sided by interpreting each daily prompt as part of the description of a character (player or non-player as the reader chooses) for Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game.

Hit or Miss in Detail

[This article is an elaboration of "Hit or Miss."]

Characters begin with hit points equal to their Constitution. They acquire miss points as they level up.

Attacks that cause damage reduce a character's miss points first. Such attacks cause no harm whatsoever and are considered misses.

When a character's miss points are reduced to zero, further damage reduces a character's hit points. Such attacks always cause harm and are considered hits.

Any reduction of hit points causes a physical wound of some sort even if it is only a prominent scar. In general, any attack that reduces a character's hit points by 50% can be considered a significant wound that may impose a penalty to attacks, movement, or attribute checks until healed. Any attack that reduces a character's hit points by 75% can be considered a grievous wound that may result in permanent disability. The specifics of such wounds can be determined by hit location, random tables, GM fiat, or—if the GM consents—victor's choice.

Healing always restores hit points first. All of the usual methods of healing are effective in this regard.

Miss points can only be recovered when hit points are at maximum. Miss points are recovered by time and, possibly, the acquisition of good luck or good karma (depending on the game system and/or the GM).

With this rule option, I recommend that zero hit points should equal death. No death saving throws, no countdowns, no Constitution depletion. This compensates for the high number of hit points with which characters will start.

In a future article, I may address miss point acquisition and recovery as it applies to some well-known level-based fantasy role-playing games.

[This is my first blog post using my new System 76 computer running Linux. Freedom at last!]

[Edit: Replaced 25% with 50% for significant wounds and 50% with 75% for grievous wounds.]

[Edit: I just discovered that Greg Stolze already discussed this concept in forum.rpg.net in 2010. So, I'll not pursue this topic further.]