Rolling Up the World
Feb. 20th, 2006 01:09 pmOne common element in tabletop RPGs has always fascinated me, and it's that many not only use random methods to roll up characters, and determine the consequences of their actions, but they also use these methods to sketch out the environment in which characters operate.
In original Dungeons and Dragons these systems were limited and primitive: They told you what monsters you'd encounter (and what treasure they'd be carrying) and the weather you'd encounter at sea. By the time of Advanced D&D, though, they were a lot more extensive. Not only were the treasure and encounter tables much more elaborate (often to a silly degree, as with the Random Drunk and Harlot Tables), but the Dungeon Master's Guide offered such treats as Random Dungeons, Random Wilderness Terrain, Random NPC Personalities, Random Demon Appearance Tables and Random Dungeon Room Furnishings.
By that point Traveller had come out, and it hinted at the full potential of a game to sketch out an environment using nothing more than dice and tables. There were rules for rolling up entire worlds; they were crude at first, but much more sophisticated as time went on. Traveller didn't have random monster tables, it had rules for generating the different life forms on each planet. There was tables for random encounters in the streets, but also for the rumors you'd hear in the bars, and the type of "patrons" you could meet, offering dangerous work for your characters.
Other games have made contributions in this area, especially in the fantasy field. Chivalry and Sorcery told you how to randomly generate a medieval kingdom; it told you the chance of finding precious metals in different areas; and it had tables for nationwide events such as wars, depressions and plagues. Chaosium's Cities supplement had elaborate tables for generating a fantasy city. Other games, and magazine articles, offered such tongue-in-cheek fare as Random Tavern Name Tables, Random Torture Type Tables and the Random Gary Gygax Polearm table.
I suspect only a handful of these systems have ever gotten much use, partly because most need to be complicated if they want to avoid silly results, and complicated rules take more time to use and master, which makes them of limited use during a game. Computers may offer a solution, however, and I'd like to see programs that could truly Roll Up a World, to the extent that I could send my character's spaceship to a random planet, fly to a randomly generated city, walk to a random bar and be told the name of the place, the name of the owner and the patrons, and the type of drinks that are served there. Existing tabletop RPGs could fill in most of those details, and with computers you could do an even better job.
In original Dungeons and Dragons these systems were limited and primitive: They told you what monsters you'd encounter (and what treasure they'd be carrying) and the weather you'd encounter at sea. By the time of Advanced D&D, though, they were a lot more extensive. Not only were the treasure and encounter tables much more elaborate (often to a silly degree, as with the Random Drunk and Harlot Tables), but the Dungeon Master's Guide offered such treats as Random Dungeons, Random Wilderness Terrain, Random NPC Personalities, Random Demon Appearance Tables and Random Dungeon Room Furnishings.
By that point Traveller had come out, and it hinted at the full potential of a game to sketch out an environment using nothing more than dice and tables. There were rules for rolling up entire worlds; they were crude at first, but much more sophisticated as time went on. Traveller didn't have random monster tables, it had rules for generating the different life forms on each planet. There was tables for random encounters in the streets, but also for the rumors you'd hear in the bars, and the type of "patrons" you could meet, offering dangerous work for your characters.
Other games have made contributions in this area, especially in the fantasy field. Chivalry and Sorcery told you how to randomly generate a medieval kingdom; it told you the chance of finding precious metals in different areas; and it had tables for nationwide events such as wars, depressions and plagues. Chaosium's Cities supplement had elaborate tables for generating a fantasy city. Other games, and magazine articles, offered such tongue-in-cheek fare as Random Tavern Name Tables, Random Torture Type Tables and the Random Gary Gygax Polearm table.
I suspect only a handful of these systems have ever gotten much use, partly because most need to be complicated if they want to avoid silly results, and complicated rules take more time to use and master, which makes them of limited use during a game. Computers may offer a solution, however, and I'd like to see programs that could truly Roll Up a World, to the extent that I could send my character's spaceship to a random planet, fly to a randomly generated city, walk to a random bar and be told the name of the place, the name of the owner and the patrons, and the type of drinks that are served there. Existing tabletop RPGs could fill in most of those details, and with computers you could do an even better job.