Lets co create some tables...

[Treebore]

in this case, why don't we create some tables related to the creating higher levels back grounds... IE what did they do getting to whatever level they are at?

So table for getting from 1st level to second...

1: Took care of Orcs raiding local farms.
2: Took care of band of Kobolds stealing all the farmers chickens.
3: Took care of wolf pack diseased into madness.
4: Recovered (1d4) children kidnapped to be eaten by the Swamp Troll
5: Defended town of "Enter name" from attack of 40 Brigands.
6: Saved Local Farmers family from being dragged off into the swamps by Troglodytes
7: Defended Trade Caravan from Brigands, 30 strong.
8: Cleared out (insert nobles name) family crypt of Uncle who became a Wight.
9: Eliminated massive rat infestation from towns sewers.
10: Destroyed Gibbering Mouther that found its way into the Town's Well.

and so, list your ideas and I will add them to the table...


TABLE 2: Encounter Events (IE results from encounters)

1 Knocked unconscious through stupidity - earned a less than flattering nickname
2 Saved companion heroically - earned a flattering nickname
3 Only party member to survive a near TPK - night sweats and nightmares d4 nights per week
4 Saved a little girl, and likely whole town, from a vicious monster - small town honors you as hero - all things in town free to half off - always welcome
5 lost one finger in a fight
6 picked up a lovely body scar - very proud of it - usually good for a free beer with the story that goes with it.
7 Found a lovely dinner knife of exquisite make, silver handled, never seems to dull... it is cursed, but you don't know it yet, how could something so pretty and useful be a problem.. so long as you're holding it....
8: Have scar across left eye from cut of (insert name of random creature or enemy)
9: Left knee gets stiff in cold weather due to blow from club by an Ogre. (Will go away first time a full Heal spell is cast on character)
10: You have a collection of Orc teeth, their tusks.

[capmarvel]

THANKS! for getting this started - I have some ideas written down and will add tomorrow.

I thought of finding a list of modules for various levels and borrowing the main plots for the tables.

For new people you can see the context of these tables here:
http://trolllord.com/forums/viewtopic.p ... le=desktop

Also thinking that chaotic/evil people or creatures would have completely different reasons they went up in level.

[Captain_K]

i Knocked unconscious through stupidity - earned a less than flattering nickname
ii Saved companion heroically - earned a flattering nickname
iii Only party member to survive a near TPK - night sweats and nightmares d4 nights per week
iv Saved a little girl, and likely whole town, from a vicious monster - small town honors you as hero - all things in town free to half off - always welcome
v lost one finger in a fight
vi picked up a lovely body scar - very proud of it - usually good for a free beer with the story that goes with it.
vii Found a lovely dinner knife of exquisite make, silver handled, never seems to dull... it is cursed, but you don't know it yet, how could something so pretty and useful be a problem.. so long as you're holding it....

[Treebore]

i Knocked unconscious through stupidity - earned a less than flattering nickname
ii Saved companion heroically - earned a flattering nickname
iii Only party member to survive a near TPK - night sweats and nightmares d4 nights per week
iv Saved a little girl, and likely whole town, from a vicious monster - small town honors you as hero - all things in town free to half off - always welcome
v lost one finger in a fight
vi picked up a lovely body scar - very proud of it - usually good for a free beer with the story that goes with it.
vii Found a lovely dinner knife of exquisite make, silver handled, never seems to dull... it is cursed, but you don't know it yet, how could something so pretty and useful be a problem.. so long as you're holding it....

Hmmmm... I think this would work better as its own table: Interesting events

[Captain_K]

tone it down a bit? It is getting late...

[capmarvel]

- cleared the forest of bandits
- defeated the ghoul terrorizing the old ruins
- retrieved a lost item for wealthy patron

[Penny-Whistle]

iii Only party member to survive a near TPK - night sweats and nightmares d4 nights per week

hahaha so true!!!! love it.

[Treebore]

tone it down a bit? It is getting late...

No, I am just saying your suggestion are "life events", while the rest are encounters they had that helped them reach level 2.
Which is fine, having another set of tables like that will be cool.

[Captain_K]

I was thinking of a table that applies at any level, not just first, but now I see you point. If we supply bits they can be sorted as we go.

Do you want only good things, or bad things too?

[capmarvel]

Looking great Treebore - and this is obvious, but this list can also serve as suggested adventures for the various levels.

[Treebore]

I was thinking of a table that applies at any level, not just first, but now I see you point. If we supply bits they can be sorted as we go.

Do you want only good things, or bad things too?

List any ideas. We can sort out where we want to put it all later. IE maybe do a separate table of "Bad Events" or something. Right now we are just in the creative free flow stage, once we get a fair amount of ideas listed, then we can worry about cleaning it up, etc...

[Treebore]

Looking great Treebore - and this is obvious, but this list can also serve as suggested adventures for the various levels.

Yeah, when I was adding stuff last night I was thinking these tables could also be used as encounter creation ideas.

[Lurker]

Looking great Treebore - and this is obvious, but this list can also serve as suggested adventures for the various levels.

Yeah, when I was adding stuff last night I was thinking these tables could also be used as encounter creation ideas.

I hate random background tables ... However, 'encounter creation ideas' are right up my alley.


Here is some use where they fit as needed:

Run in with Fey - either positive with good fey or negative with evil fay
Wrongfully accused of a crime or committed crime/offense but it was blamed on someone else
Survived a catastrophic family event or an event caused your family to abandon/ostracize you
Received a good fortune/fate or has a geas/curse place on (either way this leads to becoming an adventure and leaving hearth and home)
Stumbled (by luck not skill or daring) on a treasure. but the owner/one who hid it may be looking for it now or someone stole something of importance/value of your and you need to get it returned
Older sibling(s) get credit for what ever you do in the area you are from or you are blamed for anything you kin does
Older kin (whether father, uncle or brother) is renowned for ... and you are drawn into the effect of their actions/activities
You come with a name that is tied to great deeds, great things are require/expected from you

[Treebore]

I hate random background tables ...

There is a great feature about random tables, they are only random if you roll. If you choose, they are a list of options.

[Lurker]

I hate random background tables ...

There is a great feature about random tables, they are only random if you roll. If you choose, they are a list of options.

Can I quote you on that if we ever end up playing traveler ?

That said. 9 out of 10 times that is what I normally do, use them as idea mines for options, When forced to roll for things like that I normally get something wonkie that just ruins the character for me ...

I'd thought about ideas for more table inputs, but there was an issue at work and because of it my work load has tripled and I'm doing things only people with 2-3+ years experience are supposed to be doing. Soooooo my brain is fried and I data dumped any ideas I came up with on the hour long drive to work this morning ...

[Captain_K]

a) rolled a 1 at the wrong time, failed my fear save and ran from my first fight, but at least my screams of fear awake two of my companions from sleep.
b) failed my save from fear and ran from my second fight, two in a row, getting to be a habit, going to earn a bad nickname, Wisby Ankle Bitter the Yellow???
c) finally awoke from clever sleeping place in the tree only to fail my DEX save and fell out of the tree
c2) managed to pull off the jump spell in combat, but the parting shots of the two hounds ended in two dang ankle biting hounds I could not endure so I fell from the damn tree branch and knock my self out from the 10' fall... why are us wizards so darn weak!
d) Used a Hero point, rolled great for the sliding scale, triple damage awarded, rolled great, 30 point to behead the hound worrying the ankle of the unconscious mage
e) removed paralysis twice, restored sight, healed the fighters and heroically leaped to the aid of the nearly dead mage and I still took crap from the NPC, Pans is such a bitch.. but at least I got group praise for selfless and timely actions!

Yep, all this just happened in tonight's game, so call it random, call it actual, but they all really happened against four Yeth Hounds with a very unlucky group of "resting" 3rd lvl adventurers just trying to get their nightly rest and spells back! Wandering monsters are so much fun!!!

[capmarvel]

As I feared - this seems harder than I thought.

Perhaps I should ask the Dungeon Crawl Classics people - they seem to love random tables.

[capmarvel]

Just had a discussion with a friend on why I want this.

Basically this: Your CK/GM says "roll up a 4th level character". You roll up a 4th level character. Your 4th level character walks into the town tavern - what would the patrons know about your character? What did your character accomplish to get to Level 4? (And also what did they do to get to Level 3, Level 2, and/or Level 1?)

[Treebore]

Yep, I understood that. Which you could do by just randomly rolling up a bunch of encounters, but thats pretty boring. Much cooler to come up with the context around those encounters.

[Lurker]

Just had a discussion with a friend on why I want this.

Basically this: Your CK/GM says "roll up a 4th level character". You roll up a 4th level character. Your 4th level character walks into the town tavern - what would the patrons know about your character? What did your character accomplish to get to Level 4? (And also what did they do to get to Level 3, Level 2, and/or Level 1?)

I'd argue part of that process, and therefore part of this idea/tables, is just how wide spread knowledge of ones accomplishments is regarding their levels.

With that I figure:

1 - 2 maybe 3rd level - neighborhood known (in and around your home town to the county you grew up in)

3 - 4 maybe 5th level - locally known (the area equal to say 3 or 4 counties)

5 - 6 maybe 7th level - district (equal to about a state area)

7 - 8 maybe 9th level - region (equal to about 2 -4 states)

9 - 10 maybe 11th level - province - domain (nearly nationally known)

Of course, specific individuals will be outside that framework - a duke and his children (or higher up the nobility scale) will inherently be know starting out at least district wide or more widely know even if they are only 1st level, or an unleveled npc.

So, with that, you would need events that would fit the different area sizes . To me it does little good to say 'roll up a 4th level character' and then have them have a background that only someone in their neighborhood would know, or the invers 'roll up a 3rd level character' and have their background full of stuff that would make them known nation wide.

[Lurker]

crud, you all got me side tracked from why I checked back in on this thread ...

As a friend of mine pointed out, "You've been of little help on this" . "What, your ideas are that shallow, so you can only help with one table" ... not naming any names ... cough cough Tree cough cough

Today was the fist day in well over a week that we were above 40% manned at work, soooooo I'm not completely brain fried, and can add a bit more.

For a bit higher level than my first idea:

Was involved in a critical battle that the fate of the province/country hinged on - either was in the fight and survived, or skulked away and went 'AWOL' (Think Shakespeare's Henry the V here, Either St Crispin's day pride or 'I will steal back to London and there I will steal')

Was embroiled with some court drama/conspiracy. You had to do something requiring daring, skill and luck to accomplish - breaking someone out of a renowned and well guarded jail/castle, or you had to, against heavy odds stop something from happening

You befriended someone of vastly different social standing and did something difficult but right - the lowly commoner helping a duke or prince and then giving him an honest answer that his 'hangers on' would avoid answering, or a noble helping a commoner get justice and now has first hand knowledge about the lower strata and is know by them as one of the few honest reliable and dependable 'nobles'.

Traveled well outside the normal area anyone would travel - Marco Polo, or '13th Warrior' - The venture could have been a success or failure, however, either way you have stories and experiences no one from your area would believe

Meet and get to know a renowned (or will be renowned in the future) teacher/theologian/artisan/military leader. Did a good deed for them, or hindered them, either way they know and remember you and will react accordingly.


Tricked/outwitted a leader/opponent of moderately high importance. Either once spectacularly or repeatedly but less exceptionally . A 'good' leader will give at least grudging respect, an evil/corrupt leader will be a foe. However, the local populace will give you near folk hero status. Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, El Cid

Heck, anything from 'Three Musketeers' 'The Walking Drum' or other books that I love ...

[Treebore]

I am such a slave driver!