Adventure Workbook: Auto-Generated Random Tables

The Paladin in Citadel had a great idea that I'm going to be chewing on for awhile.  If you haven't read it, go here and do so.  You won't be sorry.

He offers some interesting ideas and I don't pretend to have fully grasped them yet, but here's a tool that I think might be helpful in this quest.

It's a RANDOM Wandering Monster Chart.  I mocked this up because it seems like it could play a role in an adventure workbook.

Here's how it works.  It generates a random spread of percentages on Sheet 2 and then it generates SIX sets of random numbers on Sheet 1.  It roughly builds a d100 chart, or at least that's the intention.

In the upper left, you can play with the spreads on the main sheet.  A random spread between 1 and 5 is the default and it matches the spread on Sheet 2.  If you change the number in yellow (see below) you can radically change the way that the sheet is randomized.  That would impact the monsters that appear in the sheet -- and how frequently they are encountered.

If you hit CTRL-R it changes all six charts.  Sometimes monsters disappear and sometimes monsters HAVE A WIDE SPREAD...  These are the monsters out of the Labyrinth Lord book, by the way...

Here's a screenshot:

Here's the spreadsheet.  Use as you see fit.

I also mocked up a RANDOM sheet (Risus Monkey said I could!) that redistributes and randomizes Risus Monkey's DungeonWords.  This is an excellent resource that I wrote about here.  Go download it for yourself, you won't be sorry.

Anyway, you could use this sheet to add/change words of your own.  It could serve as the "atmosphere" of the adventure and could serve to develop plot hooks and themes within adventure points.  Once again, you can change that little "5" in the upper left to a larger or smaller number.  That will change the way the tables interact with Sheet 2, changing your results.

Here's the dungeonwords sheet to download.

Go forth and create workbooks!!!  I'll be there soon!