One of the more controversial decisions Gary Gygax made in D&D was what later commentators called "Gygaxian naturalism". This refers to portraying monsters as members of an entire species that naturally exists. This isn't always bad, but there are alternatives. Other people with blogs have spent a great deal of time discussing this subject already, so I decided to just make a table including all the possibilities I can think of for alternative creature origin.
Comment if you think of any more to add to the list. One obvious possibility is aliens, but I left that out since I never include them in my games.
When I'm playing a solo dungeon crawl, all of the dice rolling can get monotonous. I like to stock my dungeons using a deck of cards instead, it adds some nice variety.
This is based on the Random Dungeon Stocking rules from Old School Essentials.
Double Encounter means you roll up 2 encounters, but the two groups of creatures are in conflict with one another
I came across this post a while back and found it quite in line with how I wanted my games to run. I decided to make a convenient table of the main categories of villain motivations, to ensure villains have a nice variety of motivations.
Anyway here it is:
D10: Why is that person/creature doing evil stuff?
They believe they are acting in self-defense
They believe it's for the greater good
Self-interest, they believe their needs matter more than other's do
They believe other people will hurt them if they don’t assert dominance first
To get something they desperately need
Pure sadism
They're just totally numb to suffering and don't think about what they're doing
Their senses are warped and they don't accurately perceive what they are doing
They are in pain and lashing out randomly
Roll twice and combine
Please comment if you can think of any more options to add to the list.
A key part of Solitaire RPG play is the use of oracles, nonsense phrase generators that provide inspiration for what comes next in the game. When I play solitaire games, I use the Mythic Oracle to answer questions such as "What is that person doing?" "What is going on here?". However, the Mythic Oracle is designed to inspire more mundane ideas, to move the story forward as rapidly as possible. So, I created a second set of oracles, designed for rapid, weird worldbuilding. I've included them below, with examples of what kind of questions they are designed to answer. Some of the words are drawn from biology or from non-english languages. If you see a word you don't recognize, just type it into Wikipedia and all will become clear.
~Content Note: These oracles contain references to slavery and violence. Each can produce 10000 different phrases. Some may be disturbing in ways I have not yet forseen.
The Interpersonal Drama Oracle takes the form of an interpersonal/feeling verb followed by person-related noun:
It answers questions such as: Who is that person and what are they doing? What gossip did you just hear?
The Interpersonal Violence Oracle takes the form of a violence/movement/theft related verb followed by a person-related noun:
It answers questions such as: What kind of violent and dramatic shenanigans are going on here?
The Weird Creature Oracle takes the form of a practical/intellectual/weird verb followed by a random/weird creature-related noun:
The Dangerous Creature Oracle takes the form of a violence/movement/theft related verb followed by a random/weird creature-related noun
They are both designed to answer questions such as: What is that weird creature you just saw? What is that dangerous creature you just saw? What is chasing you down the dungeon corridor? What did you see out of the corner of your eye?
pls enjoy
There is some duplication between these oracles. That is because I insisted in making sure that each list was exactly 100 words each, so I can eventually produce a pdf version with D100 tables.
Please do tell me if you end up using this for anything and how it turns out.
