Neither the referee nor the group of players has complete control over what’s going to happen, and the result is an evolving set of surprises for both the referee and the players. The referee is in charge of the fantasy world, and the players direct the actions of their characters in that fantasy world. My shorter tables tend to deliver cryptic results designed to shock the reader’s creativity into filling in the gaps, whereas my longer tables are unusably vast for easy random generation, being designed to shock the reader’s creativity into operation by presenting a sea of possibilities.Ī fantasy adventure game, at its very heart, is about developing an open-ended “story” of the characters. They work best as a tool for preparation beforehand, providing relatively vast creative resources for browsing and gathering, rather than quick-use tables designed to provide broad, fast brushstrokes. There are already many excellent books of tables for use on the fly the tables in these books are different. I should say up front that these are tables for deep design – in other words, most of them are too long, and contain too many unusual or contradictory entries, for use on the spot at the gaming table. The vast majority of the content of each book is made up of random generation tables that I’ve created over a quarter of a century (sigh) for my own use. Introduction “books,” each one providing resources at every step of the way. Introduction to Book Four.260 Aerial Adventures.261 Castles and Ruins.264 Cities and Settlements.267 Planar and Alternate Worlds.283 Underwater Adventures.287 Waterborne Adventures.288 Wilderness Adventures.290 General Wilderness Tables.290 Desert Adventures.295 Forest Adventures.297 Hill and Mountain Adventures.298 Swamp Adventures.300 Complete List of Tables.301 Consolidated Index.304 Introduction to Book Three.126 The Creative Process.127 Part One: Basic Elements of Adventure Design.129 Part Two: Designing a Dungeon Adventure.135 Mysteries and Clues.135 The Map.149 Tricks.186 Traps.217 Dungeon Dressing.231 Miscellaneous Useful Tables.236 List of Tables (Book Three).258īook One: Principles and Starting Points Introduction to Book One.5 Adventure Design: General Principles.6 Locations.8 Missions.15 The Villain’s Plan.27 Concluding Remarks.53 List of Tables (Book One).53 Book One Index.53īook Two: Monsters Introduction to Book Two.54 Part One: Monster Types.55 Part Two: General Monster Tables.105 List of Tables (Book Two).124 Book Two Index.125 Table of Contents Book Three: Dungeon Design Books One and Two were previously published by Black Blade Publishing, 2009. Finch “Frog God Games” and “FGG” are trademarks of Frog God Games. “Mythmere” and “Mythmere Games” are trademarks of Matthew J. Copyrights to artwork are held by the respective artists or by Frog God Games. Howard, Fritz Leiber and many others.Ĭover Art Rowena Aitken Interior Art David Day, Brian LeBlanc, Veronica Jones, Erik Lofgren, Jim Nelson, Mark Smylie, Tyler Walpole, UDON StudiosĬopyright 2009-2011, Matthew J. And also to the various authors of sword & sorcery fiction to whom these tables owe their fundamental inspirations: Michael Moorcock, Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith, H.P. com, to Scot Hoover, as another inveterate tablecreator, and to the old-school warriors at. Special Thanks To my wife Madison, my kids Tessa, Thomas, and Atticus, to the forum fans at swordsandwizardry. The answer to life, the universe and everything.

A comprehensive adventure-creation sourcebook for Swords & Wizardry and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

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