A Tale of Tables
Hello everyone! I'm working on the next issue of Mythic Magazine, and one of the articles is about a collection of specialized Meaning Tables. This is something I've been working on for Mythic GME 2nd edition, so I'm glad to include it in this issue.
This is just what it sounds like, Meaning Tables with a more focused theme. We currently have Action and Description Meaning Tables, two pairs of 1d100 tables for generating inspiration for anything involving an action or a description. The newer tables are single 1d100 tables meant for more specific concepts. For instance, the Location, Encounters, and Objects tables with the Randomized Location Crafter are basically specialized Meaning Tables. The Character Action, Vocal, and Animal Action tables in Mythic Magazine #9 are also.
I want more. A lot more!
I'm currently thinking of specialized Meaning Tables for: Sights, Sounds, Motivations, Backgrounds, each of the Randomized Region categories (Cavern, Ancient Dungeon, Palatial Dungeon, Dark Woods, etc.), Creature Abilities, Magic Items, Spell Effects, Superpowers ... and what else?
What are some specialized Meaning Tables you'd like to see? I'd really like to do as many as I can for this upcoming issue. If I run out of time and can't make them all, I'll save them for inclusion in the Second Edition book (and probably quite a few more tables, as I'm sure more ideas will come up).
Comments (16)
The tables are done, topping out at 30 of them covering a wide variety of topics and genres. Tables for NPCs are the most numerous, with 10 of them.
Thank you everyone for the table suggestions, I appreciate it! The article is coming along nicely, it's at 16 tables right now and growing.
I have been thinking about making one of these for NPC Conversation. Then I realised that I probably needed to subdivide this into different types like 'hostile', 'romantic', and thats as far as i got, You are welcome to apply your far greater insight to this idea.
How about a table for ordinary stuff? Like what happens when a character visits their family or what (small talk) topic is talked about in a store.
Fantastic. Some I recently needed (might or might not be a good idea) - what is this artifact/item? (Features, utility) - character role, profession or main skill - character trait and flaw - Character motivations - Sight/Feeling/Smell (perhaps separately? Not sure) - Character mood or personality - Twist/Complication/Problem - Names (syllabus??)
Item Types and Quality for loot/wares, or something related to Character Appearances, like what Stone said, would be awesome! Or some kind of themed scenery decorator tables (for a slightly more specific "what's here" question). Or perhaps a mood-shift table, with different atmospheric tones for when your game calls for a random tonal shift. Or a Character relationship randomizer of sorts, to tie a Character to another character in a more specific way. Sorry, I just have so many ideas!
These are good, and somewhat complicated, ideas lol I like them, this is making me think some of these could use entire articles of their own, like randomly determining the tone and mood of an adventure or changing it mid-game.
Maybe more specific NPC or character physical descriptions. Hair types, physiques, piercings, tattoo types, scars shapes, age, weight , clothing style. I forget if you already have some of these in another table but I love rolling these things for creating NPCs
One thing I've still been thinking quite a lot about is a generator for types of clues. For example, I've still not found a very satisfactory means of generating clues for a lost location or relic type quest. Your mystery mechanic in addition to advice on clues and plots from the FlexTale have been informative in building an approach to this type of quest, but I think this might make for an interesting and useful type of Meaning table.
I'm glad you said that because I was mulling that one over. I'm thinking a table like that would almost focus more on tone than specific objects, since a "clue" could be so many things. What's important isn't necessarily what the clue itself is, but what it means. You might even roll on a Clues Meaning Table to get an idea of what the clue means, and another table if you need to know what exactly it is (an object, a spoken lie, etc.)
Location tables sound good - particularly if they are abstracted to work across genres but tuned to regions like urban, rural, or barren. (Also consider what does abstract urban “space (sci-fi)” (dense spaceports, orbital operations, busy space traffic) look like as well as an more traditional definition of urban such as a world based setting like a city.)
Since I plan to include a specialized Meaning Table for every Randomized Location Crafter Region that's been published so far, we're going to see quite a few Location tables. There have been five regions published so far, each broken down into three categories, so that's a total of 15 location tables right there. I'd like to include location specific Meaning Tables with each new Randomized Region in the future as well.
Oh awesome!!! We've been trying to cut down the bulk of tables/generators we use in our sessions in favor of Mythic's more universal ones and I'm officially very excited for these new specialized tables!! I'd love an Items Table. I know we could use the Object one but I'd like something that gets slightly more specific, maybe with words like: small, utility, art, tool, consumable, oversized, projectile, slashing, worn, new, busted, rate, expensive, valuable, etc. So you don't have to reach for a specific "items in a dumpster" table but instead roll on this Item table a couple of times and get a good idea of what the object you just found could be.
That's a good idea. As to your comment about cutting down on tables, this is something I like about this concept. Like a lot of things with Mythic, specialized Meaning Tables are a modular component. You can take it or leave it as you wish, either way your Mythic game will move along just fine. The universal tables are applicable to anything, but the new specialized tables are there if you want them. You wouldn't feel any pressure that you must locate the appropriate specialized table for a situation since you can always use the more general tables. However, if some of the specialized tables really fit your needs, you can use them in place of the general ones as you see fit.
I’m just saying the first things that come to my mind: combat actions, problems, objectives. I don’t know if they’d be too generic categories to do them, though…
I think those sound good. I don't think being too general is an issue, when you consider that the Action and Description Tables sit at the top of the inverted pyramid of generality. Those are still the main tables and we can always go to them for anything. Any concept more specific than that, which is basically everything and anything, can be made into a more specific Meaning Table. I imagine there will be substantial overlap between many tables, and that's okay. They are all basically slightly different versions of the main tables, with the objective of giving more appropriate results. So, if you wanted inspiration for a combat action, you could roll on the general Action Meaning Tables, or a specialized Combat Actions table, or an Actions table. All three are very similar and would give you useful results, but the specialized ones give you extra options to tailor your table to the current situation.