Odd Looking Gamma World Map

I was toying with Hexographer (free version) and I found that if you use the "icy" terrain on any other, it turns it into a bicolor version (mountains become black and white, forest green and white, dunes yellow and white and so on.) I changed the grid color to yellowish green, used an odd pixeled font for numbering and here you are. I wanted this map to look geometric, so I used blue grid-snapped lines for rivers and red dashed grid-snapped lines for "routes of the Ancients". I think the result is kinda cool, except for the fact that "badlands" numbering is a bit hard to read – I will fix it one way or another.

30x30 Squares Dungeons for Improvised In-game Reference

People out there spend a lot of time on geomorphs. I'm not saying geomorphs are not cool – they are, for sure! But think about it. Say you're running a sandbox game with your fellow players; suddenly, the usual wandering monsters check loudly tells you "MONSTER LAIR!" and you're like "What the hell I have no such thing as a fucking monster lair dungeon in my notes noooo!!" and now you have three choices: pull out your geomorphs and build them up as randomly as you can, pull out your DMG and find Appendix A as fast as you can, or just decide not to follow the dice, and roll another encounter. Well, what about if, instead, you pulled out the Majestic Book of Random Mini-Dungeons? Only maps, of course, with some room to write on them what is in any given area. All in all, 99% of monster lair dungeons need nothing more than one encounter – the monster himself.

I'm not saying I'm doing this (too much stuff already on the go and definitely not enough time), but if you're trying to find a good idea for a fast and remunerative product, here you are. Seriously, I'd buy that, and so would probably many other DMs...

Special Encounters in Map 01

Refer to this map. I've tried to follow the advice ChicagoWiz kindly left to me in the comments of this other post:

For instance, the wandering monster tables you mention. In opening up new areas, I don't do that so much. I just have a list of monsters that I'll use and I roll against generic tables like from the ref sheets or in OSRIC/DMG. Depending on that result, I'll check against the monsters I've specified. So if the result is dragon, I'll see what is dragon-like in my own list, or what is as strong as a dragon, and go from there.

As you will note, I went even a bit further. The following encounters share the same structure of the ones found in Carcosa or Planet Algol. Only, they aren't hex-fixed. Once I give this a try, I will let you know if/how it works.

Ibkah City Encounters

1. Òzmul The Mad sit in his sedan chair surrounded by his eunuch bodyguards and slave chicks.
2. Thief trying to jostle the characters.
3. Naked mad preacher predicting The Day of Judgment.
4. Cardinal Azor and his servants.
5. Pusher selling hallucinogen drugs, stimulants, opiates and such.
6. Slave market – very good prices (discount up to 40% on emasculated kleengons.)
7. Gambling house.
8. Kids playing (will offer aid to strangers in exchange for 1cp.)
9. Pimp offering pussies for a penny.
10. KORGOTH.

Jungle Encounters

1. Patrol of 2-12 cannibal aborigine hunters.
2. 1-4 alien, talking, albino baboons armed with laser weapons.
3. Vampire flowers.
4. Random colored lotus*.
5. Giant stone heads.
6. Ruins hunted by 1-6 radioactive ghouls lead by a ghast.
7. Patrol of 2-8 Mi-go scientists**.
8. Ooze/Mud/Pudding and the like.
9. Congo's giant killer gorillas.
10. Tropical downpour (lasts at least a week.)
11. Mutated T-Rex.
12. Decrepit robot*.

Plain Encounters

1. Caravan of merchants (may hire adventurers as mercenaries, see Ibkah description for daily fee.)
2. Tribe of 30-300 nomadic barbarians (30% women, kids and elderly*** unable to fight, at least one 7th level barbarian leader and some 3rd level barbarians lieutenants – all other are 1st/2nd level barbarians.)
3. 3-6 pterodactyls**** attack from the sky!
4. Strange pool of brackish water, possibly radioactive or otherwise venomous.
5. 1-4 pilgrims, heading either towards Ibkah or the Monastery of Renewed Pain (50-50.)
6. Game (boars, gazelles and such.)
7. Farmers from Tadék headed towards Ibkah's monthly market.
8. Mr. Spock, Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy and two other anonymous officers headed to the monolith (strange alien activity detected.) Will attack Kleengons on sight.

Mountain Encounters

1. 1-3 Shoggoths**.
2. Abandoned outpost of the Space Aliens* – defense systems still active. The outpost is haunted by a mad AI (type G treasure inside, plus artistic stuff and some laser weapons.)
3. Pterodactyl's**** nest (1-8 adults plus 2-24 chicks.)
4. Lair of one Ettin.
5. Snowstorm (lasts 3-6 hours.)
6. Spawn of Shub-Niggurath*.
7. 2-4 megalo-centipedes.
8. One poisonous snake.
9. 7-12 dire wolves lead by one worg.
10. One carrion crawler.
11. Decomposed human remains.
12. Lair of one huge scorpion.

Venomous Marsh Encounters

1. One Spawn of the Toad Demon.
2. 2-12 sub-humans (worshipers of the Toad Demon.)
3. One crocodile.
4. Water pool with black lotus on the surface, full of leeches.
5. Giant mutated snail (acid slime.)
6. Toxic fumes! Chose a random lotus* for effects.
7. Tribe of 5-100 troglodytes lead by one evil troglodyte 2nd level shaman (qv DMG pg 40.)
8. Ooze/Mud/Pudding and the like.
9. 2-8 radioactive ghouls.
10. 3-9 white lotus zombies (once adventurers.)

_____________________________________

*Stats from Carcosa.

**Stats from D&DG

***Kids over 7, young women and men below 45 are regular fighters, so this percentage only shows "unable to fight" types.

****Same stats as Pteranodons (see MM, Dinosaur.)

A Much More Yaqqothlian Map

Birthday Party is coming, and I'm still fucking around with GADD – sometimes I just hate myself. By the way, here's another hex-map, which should resemble the old one, although it looks much more Science Fantasy to me (and this is what this blog was meant to be about, right?) So I'll keep it. Can I key all this stuff in less than two days? Hell, no! But I'll do my best, starting from right now.

0202: The Black Ziggurat. Hidden in the deepest jungle and chocked full of giant mutated fungi lies a colossal obsidian ziggurat, so ancient that even legend forgot its existence. The Black Ziggurat is one of the aspects of the Blackest Tesserzigguract, and a door to all the worlds that host one. This Black Ziggurat, in particular, is also the tomb of the most powerful king of a lost Maya-like civilization (probably the same which built the Ruined City in hex 0403.)
0403: The Ruined City. Once known as Makapìchu, this ruined city now host a tribe of 400 cannibal aborigines. They speak their own, incomprehensible language (though a Magic-user would roughly understand what they say because of similarities with ancient, forbidden tomes of eldritch sorcery), and are ruled by The Superior Bone-cruncher, a Chaotic Human Evoker. They worship the Hungry Mother, a Spawn of Yog-Sothoth that dwells in a well in the center of the city, and feed her once a month with a female child.
0509: The City-state of Ibkah, ruled by Òzmul The Mad, also known as the Iridium Sorcerer. It's a port, featuring a flourishing slave trade, and one of the most famous Assassins Guild of all Yaqqothl. The inhabitants of Ibkah actively worship The Demon Lords of Sarnath, and the city hosts one of the most impressive temples of the cult, The Cathedral of St. Bérzul, lead by the self-proclamed Cardinal Azor. Azor is famous for his extreme positions and iron fist against heresy and the worshipping of false gods. Merchants and slavers are always in search of brave (and unscrupulous) adventurers to hire as mercenaries, the regular fee being 1gp per day for land travel, and 5sp per day for boat trips.
0603: Nest and hunting ground of a couple of mutated T-Rex. Their mutation consists of the fact that they are able to breath acid just like a Green Dragon (you don't want to try.) If stolen, their eggs can be used to produce great quantities of a powerful hallucinogen, or sold for the same reason (worth over 500gp each in Ibkah.)
0705: The Crystal Monolith. This weird monument is a sort of landing signal left by the Outer Ones, just in case of a trip back to Yaqqothl. It was made out of an alien, transparent, iridium gem, and holds no special powers. According to the rumors, it shows the way to the Black Ziggurat.
0907: The Monastery of Renewed Pain, ruled by Father Garxygyg. A group of about 100, mad monks live here, committed to prayer, copying old tomes of lost knowledge, cultivating the land and producing a fine malt beer. They are all devoted to the Demon Lords of Sarnath, and keep a vow of chastity.
1103: The Village of Tadék. Once an important commercial crossroad between Karzahd and Ibkah, nowadays a small, well-defended farm-community. The village is ruled by Sir Belziel, a Lawful Human Lord. The peasants avoid both the jungle and the mountains, for great perils lurk therein. The most profitable activity is farming, and also the caravans of merchants who cross the valley to the north. Thus, the valley is full of bandits (there's also a tribe of nomad barbarians, but they don't attack the caravans, although it is commonly believed that they are responsible of all the attacks.)
1203: The Fallen Gates of Karzhad. Once a fortress of the Mole-men, it was abandoned eons ago. Some says the Mole-men still live beneath the mountains, others that they dug too deep and too greedily and eventually awakened He Who Must Not Be Disturbed. Whichever way it went, during the curse of thousands of years many, nightmarish creatures have crawled into the darkness beneath, to avoid sunlight and look for easy prey to eat. None have dared to enter here from time immemorial.
1209: The Forgotten Temple of the Toad Demon. Hidden in the deepest recesses of the Venomous Marshes lies this temple, which once attracted thousands of faithful. During its decline, the most fervent believers refused to leave the cult, and over the course of hundreds of years evolved into primitive sub-humans, totally bound to the Toad Demon. They still celebrate obscene ceremonies and sacrifices in his name.

Encounters and more soon!

How Much Time/Work a Sandbox Requires

Working on the north west region of the Lake Kalji is opening my mind to how much actual work a sandbox requires. I now know the reason I wasn't able to go ahead with Yaqqothl from this map: it's too damn big! I think Lake Kalji is somewhere around hex 1912 in the above-mentioned campaign map. Thus, I want to use this post to show you how I'm approaching this very small 10 by 15 hexes region.

1. I drew the map. I knew I wanted something relatively small, with a lot of terrain variety but somehow plausible. Then I rolled on my Random Sandbox Stocking Tables, and adjusted some results in order to have the whole thing make a little more sense. Thus, step one done.
2. I thought a little about house rules, and wrote down some notes. This way I have a much clearer idea of how the game is going to look like, and that's definitely a good point.
3. Then wilderness encounter tables. I'm growing more and more convinced that Zak is right: if you define the setting using only a few sentences and some encounter tables, this will not only tell your readers more than a thousand words on the topic, but also gives you the ability to avoid wasted work.
4. This is what I have to do now: take each hot spot and flesh it out. I mean, maps, tables and keys for dungeons, sketches and again encounter tables for cities, rumor tables and so on. Once this has been done, I'll have much material to show and use. Still, it's likely that I'll have to improvise often – but this is half the fun DMing a sandbox, right?

The first three points took me a day and a half, or about 5-6 hours of work I think. I guess the last point might take about 3-times that amount of time, for a total of 20 hours of work or so. Although I have a Megadungeon in it, so this may change things a bit if you plan not to have one. Now you get two amazing pictures from Moebius, for no reason except the fact that I was undecided about which one use for the new header (you can see the winning one above.)

Shot the dino!

Thousands of weird creatures!

Lake Kalij, Part II

Part I.

The problem with using the 2-20 table for random encounters is that you come to have a great variety of encounters you may not want. Thus, I've implemented the following 2-12 table:

2. Very Rare
3. Rare
4. Uncommon
5. Uncommon
6. Common
7. Common
8. Common
9. Uncommon
10. Uncommon
11. Rare
12. Very Rare

This way, for those of you who love statistics, you have 36 possible dice combinations (6x6), of which 16 (5+6+5, roughly 45%) will result in Common encounters, 14 (3+4+4+3, roughly 38%) in Uncommon encounters, 4 (2+2, roughly 11%) in Rare encounters and 2 (1+1, roughly 6%) in Very Rare encounters. You may add more complexity by rolling 3d6 for each encounter (in that case curves are in the DMG, so it's even easier.)

Western Forest
2. Troll
3. Convoy
4. Patrol, orcs
5. Patrol, goblins
6. Boar
7. Squirrel
8. Wolf
9. Centipede, giant
10. Patrol, worg rider goblins
11. Worg
12. Patrol, Gruknartz

Plains
2. Centipede, megalo-
3. Wolf, dire
4. Boar
5. Mercenaries
6. Convoy
7. Bandits
8. Patrol, peasants of Stadt
9. Horse
10. Snake, poisonous
11. Worg
12. Pilgrim

Mountains
2. Carrion Crawler
3. Caveman
4. Snake, poisonous
5. Scorpion, huge
6. Orc
7. Ogre
8. Bugbear
9. Hobgoblin
10. Weasel
11. Gorgon
12. Ettin

Hills
2. Ettercap
3. Pilgrim
4. Snake, giant poisonous
5. Bandit
6. Skunk
7. Raven
8. Mule
9. Ghoul
10. Bear
11. Patrol, Baron Petrowitz Knights
12. Basilisk

Swamp
2. Spawn of the Toad Demon
3. Sub-human
4. Basilisk
5. Toad, giant
6. Centipede, huge
7. Flying, swarm
8. Crocodile
9. Snail, giant
10. Leech, giant
11. Ghoul
12. Ghast

Eastern Forest
2. Dryad
3. Ant, giant
4. Badger
5. Skeleton
6. Toad, giant
7. Squirrel
8. Wolf
9. Zombie
10. Leprechaun
11. Brownie
12. The Silent Watcher

Convoys are usually composed of 10-20 men-at-arms and 6 light horses. The merchant is demi-human only 1 in 6 (2-3 dwarf, 4 elf, 5 hobbit, 6 other). Most merchants (80%) sell slaves – male slaves are chained and must walk, women and children are transported in wagons. Other goods include jewels, weapons and armor, food and wine. Roll a d6 to determine destination: 1-4 Ibkah, 5 Stadt, 6 Castle Petrowitz/Broon.

Special Monsters are described in their respective one-page adventures.

Random Weather (Winter)
2. Snowstorm
3. Snow
4. Storm
5. Rain
6. Cloudy
7. Windy
8. Cloudy
9. Rain
10. Storm
11. Snow
12. Snowstorm

Random Weather (Autumn/Spring)
2. Storm
3. Rain
4. Rain
5. Cloudy
6. Windy
7. Sunny
8. Windy
9. Cloudy
10. Rain
11. Rain
12. Storm

Random Weather (Summer)
2. Hailstorm
3. Storm
4. Rain
5. Cloudy
6-8. Sunny
9. Cloudy
10. Rain
11. Storm
12. Hailstorm

Lake Kalij, Part I

Part II.

First of all, this ain't no Grognardia! Just my last layout deviation. Don't worry, things may return to normal in a while as I change my mind again. I like to reskin The Grimoire once in a while. By the way...

Map 01

Introduction: I decided to run a very small sandbox for my birthday party. I think this is absolutely the best way to introduce the noobs to D & D, since it allows rooms for exploration and decisions. The map was, in some way, directly inspired by this map posted yesterday over at The Underdark Gazette. I wrote no introduction, and put my notes together in a way similar to the One Page Wilderness Template (although I didn't use the template itself.) Unfortunately my notes are in italian, so my pdf is not suitable for publication. Thus, I decided to report everything here for you to comment on.

HEX KEY
0208: The City-state of Ibkah, ruled by Ozmul The Mad, also known as the Iridium Sorcerer. It's a port, featuring a flourishing slave trade, and one of the most famous Assassins Guild of all Yaqqothl. Here lies the Cathedral of St. Berzul, where Cardinal Azor lives. The Cardinal is one of the most influential men of the Church, and it's said that he could be the next Pope. Azor is famous for his extreme positions and iron fist against heresy and the worshipping of false gods.
0306: A tribe of orcs and goblins ruled by an ogre known as Gruknartz The Harrier. They live in a complex of natural caves beneath a small hill in the wood. They train wargs, and usually plunder the caravans of merchants that cross the wood on the road from Ibkah and the Village of Stadt. Sir Belziel would pay for Gruknartz's head.
0405: The fortified Village of Stadt. Once an important commercial crossroad between Karzahd and Ibkah, nowadays a small, well-defended farm-community. The most profitable activity until a few years ago was hunting, but now going into the forest has become dangerous. The village is ruled by Sir Belziel, a retired adventurer.
0503: Karzahd, The Lost Fortress of the Grey Dwarves. The Fortress has been abandoned eons ago, so that not even the dwarves can recall where the entrance is. Some says the dwarves still live in beneath the mountains, others that they dug too dee[ and too greedily and eventually awakened He Who Must Not Be Disturbed. Indescribable treasures are said to lie beneath the mountain.
1205: The fortified Village of Broon, a small well-defended farm-community. They pay a tribute to The Lord of Castle Petrowitz in exchange for protection. The people of Broon love Lord Petrowitz, and actually put great trust in him. A High Druid secretly lives in this village, and celebrates the rites in a little clearing in the wood in hex 1305 (the clearing is half a day's walk from the village.) If Cardinal Azor gets to know about the druids, he would certainly send Brother Ruin to "purge" the inhabitants (i.e. burn the village and execute the Lord of the Castle.) For quite some time now, some disappearances have occured in the village, at a rate of about one every two months. The Wicked Witch of the Woods or The Dwellers of the Black Marshes are typically held responsible.
1206: Castle Petrowitz, ruled by Baron Petrowitz. The Baron sincerely cares for the inhabitants of Broon, and is really worried about the disappearances. What he doesn't know is that his eldest son Vlad is responsible. Seemingly sweet and gentle, Vlad is actually a sexual sadist and a cannibal. He firmly believes that the Demon Lords of Sarnath are commanding him to act this way. The Cardinal Azor knows that, and considers Vlad to be a living prophet.
1310: The Forgotten Temple of the Toad Demon. Hidden in the deepest recesses of the Black Marshes lies this temple, which once attracted thousands of faithful. When the Church began to Preach the Word of God, the temple was eventually left to its destiny. The most fervent believers refused to leave the cult, and during the course of a thousand years evolved into primitive sub-humans, totally bound to the Toad Demon. They still celebrate obscene ceremonies and sacrifices in his name.
1504: The Lair of the Wicked Witch. The Witch is not evil, but very powerful. Securing her friendship can be very useful, as she is a powerful diviner. Anyway, the Witch has to be defeated to earn her respect.

D&D High School

Yep, sweet 70's

EDIT: I added some more links as suggested via e-mail by Greyharp!

This is something I wish someone had shown me before I started building my own sandbox. It's a list of the top useful books/tools/articles you should read and maybe emulate. All these books have "shortness" in common, for I don't have the patience to read through long game-books. If you have something else to suggest, please use the comments!

Articles
West Marches
West Marches, running your own
Illusionism and the Sandbox, Part I, II, III
Omegea
Index of Freely Available Planet Algol Campaign Resources
Dispelling a Myth - Sandbox prep
Six Sided Gaming: Hex Magic (missing images)
Worlds in Motion
Tech Level for Fantasy Sandbox Settings
Introducing Mystery and Legend into Sandbox Campaigns
Hexcrawls: Worldbuilding vs. Microlite vs. HexKit

Tools
The Welsh Piper Hex-based Campaign Design
How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox
Old School Encounters

Books
Supplement I: Greyhawk
Supplement II: Blackmoor
First Fantasy Campaign
The Keep on the Borderlands
The Majestic Wilderlands
Arduin Grimoire, Vol. 1 to 3
Supplement V: Carcosa
Dungeon Master's Guide, pg. 86-96, 110-113
Dungeon Master's Guide, Appendix A, B, C, G, H, I and N
Rappan Athuk Reloaded (3.5 Ed)
Points of Light (4th Ed)

What's Difficult With The Sandbox

Many people learn from their mistakes. Most of them are also able to learn from other's mistakes. I'm different, for I have to fail in first-person to learn from a mistake. For instance, if anyone says (advisedly) not to do something, I usually do it anyway. For example, when I was three and my mother told me not to touch the teggia* for it was scalding, I touched it anyway. It was a very formative experience. By the way, my point is that it usually takes me a long time to get into something. Stupidly enough, when I decided to run a sandbox campaign of my own nearly a year ago, I didn't read much about the topic except Carcosa. And yes, I was such an idiot that I wanted to run my own despite the fact I had acquired the amazing Rob Conely's Majestic Wilderlands. So, to be honest, it was a predictable fail.

What really went wrong with that campaign was, in the final examination (or, better, actual final examination): a) the fact that I tried to run it as slightly rail-roaded and b) the fact that I didn't have very clear ideas about the setting itself. In this post, I'm going to focus on the b-factor.

When you run a sandbox campaign, you don't really know how things are going to develop. Perhaps your players are going to go here, or not, perhaps your players are going to do that, or not. Perhaps your players are going to kill The NPC and all your work turns to shit. There are so two factors that look to be vital when preparing this kind of game:

1. Remember that every NPC is expendable;
2. Have really accurate ideas about the setting.

The last is about the most important. A sandbox certainly requires an impressive amount of improvisation, for who on earth is able to paint the most minute details? Yeah Tolkien or M.A.R. Barker maybe, and maybe even you, but definitely not me. Also, you have to maintain coherence, because every bullshit thing you say is going to leave a lasting impression in the player's mind, and may pursue you for a very long, long time. Still, you have to be creative! And this cocktail of skills is nearly impossible to achieve unless you are in the very best right-minded conditions.

I think one very good way to manage to do everything (nay, not everything, just something) right is to really be inspired. You have to work in a world you are "discovering" along with your players rather than inventing. Moreover, you have to leave it open to your players to flesh out. The only way to measure if you are doing it right or wrong is whether or not your players are able to figure out the world on their own, and how close their vision is to yours. Also, for god's sake use what the community provides you! For instance, the very fucking amazing Old School Encounters by Kellri. Ok, maybe it makes for too much greyhawkery, but it's WAAAAY great. Seriously, you can run a (not so pretentious) sandbox campaign on the spur of the moment with only that book and your ruleset of choice!

Also, at least the first few times, keep it as simple and by the book as possible! Seriously, you already have enough problems with making the sandbox work to be worried about new rules design.

________________
*A "teggia" is a type of pan typical of the Italian region my father's family comes from, Romagna (not Emilia Romagna, just Romagna). It's usually made of ceramic or cast iron (modern ones are of cast iron) and it's used to prepare the "piadina", which is a Romagna dish similar to tortillas, but made with lard, flour and water. A variation of this dish are the "cassone", which is similar to a "calzone" but made using a big piadina and stuffed with country herbs.

Mmmmh... Cassoni...

Random Sandbox Stocking Tables, Part III

10', 20', 30'; there are strange faces in the stone

Part I, Part II.

Dungeon Subtable I (Location) [d20]
1-3: Ruined City
4-6: Ruined Tower
7-9: Ruined Temple
10-12: Ruined Castle
13-15: Natural Cave
16-18: Roll 1d12 on this table, same result but not Ruined
19-20: Roll again, if you score another 19-20 then the dungeon is a gate to another world (see Subtable IIa). Otherwise, take second roll or Black Ziggurat, whichever is better.

Dungeon Subtable IIa (Other Worlds) [d20]
1: Carcosa
2: Algol
3: Dreamlands
4: Inferno
5: Fomalhaut
6: Ara
7: Omegea
8: Doxies & Deadmeat Campaign World
9: Warlock's Home Brew Campaign World
10: Underworld Kingdom
11: ChicagoWiz's Dark Ages Campaign
12: Middle-earth
13: Hyboria
14: Xiccarph
15: Zothique
16: Dying Earth
17: Barsoom
18: Tékumel
19: Earth, see Subtable IIb
20: The dungeon exists in its own reality

Note 1: I've made this list because I suffer from true GADD. The listed worlds are the ones in which I would like to play, and for which I would abandon my own campaign just to be able to play a single adventure. I strongly suggest you compile your own, unless this list already contains everything you like.

Note 2: As an optional rule, if the dungeon points to the campaign world of another guy, you must use his house rules! Just because, you know, different worlds have different laws.

Dungeon Subtable IIb (Earth) [d20]
1-3: Babylonian
4-6: Aztec/Mayan
7-9: XV century Spain
10-12: X century North Europe
13-15: Prehistory
16-18: Jurassic*
19-20: Far Future

*Not the historical one, the Jurassic Park one

Dungeon Subtable III (Dungeon Overlord) [d20]
And the Big Bad Guy is...
1-3: Powerful Demon
4-6: Bound Minor/Major Deity
7-9: Powerful NPC
10-12: Powerful NPC from another world (Subtable IIa)
13-15: Powerful Monster (Monsters Subtable I)
16-18: Roll twice and combine if possible, or take two Dungeon Overlords
19-20: Fictional character (Conan, Darth Vader, Ozymandias, etc.)

That's All Folks
Hope you're going to have fun with this. I wrote it for use with Yaqqothl, but who knows: perhaps you can adapt it to your own campaign world (or simply ignore the subtables). Fight on!

Random Sandbox Stocking Tables, Part II

Part I, Part III.

Note: The use of these monster subtables doesn't have to be limited to sandbox populating, and also work well with dungeons (depending on how much randomness you want to add). Also, you may want to use Raggi's amazing Random Esoteric Creature Generator instead of subtables II to IV (I don't have it, but I imagine it's a bit like that.)

Monster Subtable I [d20]
1-9: From Monster Manual*
10-12: From Realms of Crawling Chaos/Cthulhu Mythos Creatures for Labyrinth Lord
13-15: From Fiend Folio/Monsters of Myth/Exquisite Corpses
16-18: From Planet Algol/Mutant Future/Encounter Critical
19-20: Create New (see subtables II to IV)

*Or the core monster book/chapter of your ruleset of choice

Monster Subtable II (Type) [d20]
1-3: Humanoid
4-6: Construct (droid, golem, etc.)
7-9: Slime/Ooze
10-12: Animal
13-15: Insect
16-18: Mythological
19-20: Hybrid, roll twice and combine results

Monster Subtable III (Genre) [d20]
1-2: Fairy Fantasy
3-4: Epic Fantasy
5-6: Heroic Fantasy/Swords & Sorcery
7-8: XIX century Horror
9-10: XX century Horror
11-14: Weird/Dying Earth
15-18: Science Fiction/Space Opera
19-20: Roll twice and combine results

Monster Subtable IV (Cool Feature) [d20]
1-3: Melee Supremacy
4-6: Missile Supremacy
7-9: Magical Abilities
10-12: Divine Abilities
13-15: Psychic Power
16-18: Technology Lore
19: Roll twice and combine results
20: Roll three-times and combine results

Random Sandbox Stocking Tables, Part I

Don't fuck with gods

Part II, Part III.

It has been a while since the last time I posted some actual content to steal on this blog. So I decided to go ahead with a project I've been working on since my Doomed Wastelands campaign: The Random Sandbox Stocking system. My goal is to provide DMs with some tables similar to the ones contained in the Dungeon Masters Guide for Dungeon Stocking. I mean, a really simple idea, but actually pretty useful for anyone having to stock every single hex on a hexmap. Ya know. I think this system works best for a 15 miles per hex or so scale. Also, you will note that these tables are made to support a wide genre-involving kind of game (i.e. no vanilla fuckntasy.)

Hex Content [d20]
1-6: Empty
7-9: Hazard
10-12: Settlement
13-15: Monster
16-18: Dungeon
19: Special
20: Roll a 1d10+10 twice and combine results

Hazard Subtable [d20]
1-6: Natural (dangerous flora, poison, etc.)
7-9: Technological (radiation, minefield, etc.)
10-12: Magical (magic goes wild, random teleport, etc.)
13-15: Divine (gods have no influence here, imprisoned god, etc.)
16-18: External (alien hunting ground, weird signs from the sky, etc.)
19-20: Roll twice, combine results (ignoring other 19s and 20s)

Settlement Subtable I [d20]
1-7: Village (about 500 inhabitants)
8-11: City (about 10,000 inhabitants)
12-13: Capital* (about 1,000,000+ inhabitants)
14-17: Castle
18-19: Tower or otherwise isolated settlement
20: Camp

*You may roll on subtables II and III multiple times, even up to once per district.

Settlement Subtable II (Technological Level) [d20]
1-9: Campaign Average
10-11: Primitive or prehistoric
12-13: Ancient (Babylonian, Maya, Egyptian, etc.)
14-15: Dark Ages
16-17: Renaissance
18-19: Industrial (steampunk) or Hi-tech
20: Roll twice. First roll is actual level, second roll determines how the culture is changing (i.e. Hi-tech in decline to Prehistoric, Primitive up to Renaissance, etc.) The change is considered to be pretty fast, involving a dozen years. Think about the evolution of Japan from feudalism to industrial period, or the fall of Rome to a primitive situation.

Settlement Subtable III (Inhabitants) [d20]
1-9: Humans*
10-15: Human* friendly humanoids
16-18: Human* hostile humanoids
19: Roll twice and combine
20: Very weird creatures (intelligent variants of normally non intelligent creatures, demi-gods, etc.)

*Or campaign/region predominant species