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View Full Version : what random tables do you use for a sandbox game?



Kol Korran
2012-06-07, 06:20 AM
hey again. soon enough i'll be running a mostly sandbox pirate fantasy game (the system is D&D 3.5, though i don't think that matters).

some people on the forum suggested preparing random tables for things that the PCs might encounter. on one side i liked it- i found out in my gaming years that randomness can lead to surprising things you didn't dare think of, and it challenges DM and player alike. on the other side i feared it- as giving but a few random details about a place/ person/ encounter leaves me with not enough "meat" to provide an in depth gaming experience.

current solutions i think of:
- multiple tables, giving many details (for example the name of a place, related possible legend, maiybe basic statistics of inhabitants)
- or create random tables, and then roll on them a few times. then- furnish the results with more details and so on, using the finished products as my new random table.

both seems like quite a bit of work.

my questions to you:
- what sort of random tables do you use? how big are they? to what details do the go?

- how do you handle coming up with adequate flavor on the spot so that the place won't feel that random but fitting in the world?

- any way to make this less work intensive? i think i'm fairly imaginative, but i'd like to use sources outside my own imagination and experience, and i don't have that much time looking for stuff. real life takes precedence.

thanks in advance. i'm new to sandbox, but i want to make this work well. :smallwink:

Frenth Alunril
2012-06-07, 07:06 AM
As far as the Random encounter, I have decided mostly to make it something I pregenerate. My party is very attention starved, and the random encounter leads to a new form of trouble for them. They tend to latch on to the random things, which pulls them out of their narrative. To make this case more easy to handle I came up with this concept for random encounters.

Kingdoms:

Each area of the map is populated by different types of creatures. I use those creatures as my random encounters. So if they players head off to the boiling pits to find sacred water, they will run a chance encounter with Gnolls, or Goblins, from either of the kingdoms they cross. There are also wild animals and wolves in the area, which they are aware of, plus the complication that might come up with a host of creatures I have named "The Stishes"

The players know that this kind of encounter is possible.

Under ground, I have different types of encounters I could run, but again...

Getting back to the point. The Randomness you should consider is something you plan out before the fight. One thing that is very important for a good encounter is that it makes sense. Even though they are random, determine them ahead of time, and drop them when you feel they will fit, this way they have the encounter and do shout, "Yay, Random encounter!"

As to the effects of randomness and my use, I make spreadsheet that do that for me. Press f9, new npc (no stats) with full description as well as a little history, and ambition (with completely randomly generated alignments religions, etc... )

I am thinking of adding the "Bright Banner" calculation to it as well, and then comes a bit of a story development so that I can have automatic random hooks for each NPC... but I digress.

Keep you randomness well planned. That's my advice.

Grail
2012-06-07, 07:13 AM
Most of the games I run are sandbox, and I don't leave anything to random chance.

When I think the group needs an encounter, I will give them an encounter - of my choosing.

When I think the weather needs to change, I change it - as I want.

I do recommend though, having some pregenerated amorphous NPC's that you can slot in whenever you feel that they will be required. Also, write up a list of Tavern names, NPC names, Town/City names so that when asked what the name of the peasant the group is speaking to, you don't have to stammer out something stupid.

I also like to have a few little generic dungeons on hand, because you never know when a group will say "hey, lets go and explore the Crypt of Captain Ubiquitous". Generic dungeon maps and a few odd encounters written for them allow you to pluck one out whenever required and use it.

Diskhotep
2012-06-07, 06:24 PM
If you are running a fantasy pirate game, you owe it to yourself to run out and get a copy of the 50 Fathoms campaign setting for the Savage Worlds system (Pinnacle games). Even if you are not a fan of Savage Worlds, the setting is phenomenal, with both an overarching plot campaign designed to take characters from novices to heroes, while letting them roam the world at their whim, with dozens of location and NPC-based adventure seeds and random adventure generators.

Overview:
King Amemnus of Ograpog sentenced three witches to death for their crimes, staking them on the beach to be drowned by the high tide. With their dying breath, the witches cursed King Amemnus and all of Caribdus, causing it to rain until the sea level rose 50 fathoms.

Thirteen years later, the only surviving races are those with seafaring vessels, those on high mountain ranges (now islands), and the aquatic and semi-aquatic races. The three witches returned from the dead as the dread Sea Hags, and a terrible maelstrom drags lost Age of Sail ships from Earth to survive in this new world.

PCs can be human (from any time in earth's history between the 15th and 18th century), Masaquani (the native humanlike race), or several other setting-specific fantasy races such as the Kraken (think non-horrific, non-brain eating mind flayers), Kehana (fishmen), Grael (walrus-men), or Doreen (dolphin-like foes of the cannibalistic Kehana). They may be pirates, merchants with the British East India Company, privateers, or any other generally seafaring types. Think Pirates of the Caribbean meets Pirates of Dark Water and you've got a pretty good idea of the setting.