Spark tables and Dragon Warriors

 In his excellent RPG Electric Bastionland, Chris McDowall provides Spark Tables for the use of the referee (although he uses the term Conductor.) These are simply a few d20 tables sprinkled with setting appropriate terms to act as inspiration when you need something to kick start the imagination. When my own game prep process of staring out the window and drinking coffee fails me I resort to similar measures. After all, if someone has a good idea then I’m all about stealing it (and implying that it is my own work, ha.) 

I saw these particular tables, or perhaps early versions of them used at Dragonmeet a couple of years ago when we pressured Chris into running a game for us with zero notice. He’d brought a manuscript of Electric Bastionland to show around at the con and after a few minutes of reading it and also being long time fans of its forerunner, Into the Odd, we coerced Chris into running it there and then. He took a few moments to sketch out a map and rolled on two spark tables for each location combining the results into something Bastion appropriate for us to encounter. Then we were off and a good time was had.

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Using random tables to provide GM inspiration is as old as the hobby itself and it’s the sort of thing that I find most useful on my own prep. I’d rather create a tool for a specific session or campaign than I can reference again later, than say devise some specific story twist for this week’s game. The latter are better developed at the gaming table during play in any case. Of course you could always use something designed for this very purpose such as the Tome of Adventure Design by Matt Finch. This is filled with tables and while it has an old school D&D bent there’s a ton of material and it’s not really system or setting specific. Setting specific stuff is good though and at its best when you come up with it yourself to match the content and style of your own games.

To that end, I’m including two spark tables written for use with my own Dragon Warriors campaign. These were written back when we were still in Albion and are somewhat less useful now that the PCs are up to their necks in strife and woe in the Principalities of the Crusades.

Oh, and get Electric Bastionland. It’s really good.

Roll d20 as many times as you like on each table, combining the results to gain elements of inspiration for this week’s game.

1. Cobwebs
2. Crumbling castle
3. Twighlight
4. Moss
5. Rain
6. Mud
7. Shadow
8. Forest
9. Revenant
10. Ivy covered stone
11. Faerie 
12. Hollow hill
13. Mere
14. Hunger
15. Rust
16. Stone ring or henge
17. Cairn
18. Birds
19. Iron
20. Haunt

1. Sorcery 
2. Execution
3. The church
4. Tournament/disputation
5. Crypts/tomb
6. Statue
7. Thorns
8. Beasts
9. Horns
10. Graves
11. Heresy
12. Black magic
13. Mercenaries 
14. Bones
15. Abandoned chapel
16. Charcoal burners
17. Plague
18. Death rituals
19. Runes
20. Hunt

What is the Salt Hulk? [Actual Play]

"Being adrift after a shipwreck, my companions and I found ourselves washed up on this strange, alien vessel. Tired, emotional and starving we made our way below deck.

It would seem that the ship was crafted entirely of a peculiar, unnaturally coloured stone. The thing was run by some form of artificial intelligence, known as Ironchild. I say was..

There are fixers on board. They're weird things with gruff, northern accents. They have rat like faces and sprout multiple mechanical arms from their backs. There are big ones and little ones. I didn't like either.

A picture that I stole from Chris McDowall

One of my companions, Will, drank a phase tonic that allowed him to reset his personal timeline after a few seconds of activity.

I myself bore a brace of pistols, steel wire, a grappling hook and a fetch pearl.

We found a sailor who had been immolated  on a pair of steel spikes. Another companion, Darius, performed strange and possibly forbidden surgery to remove his dead brain and place it in a steel jar. Somehow through his arcane knowledge he could then speak with the brain, a traveller from a strange place named Hellion.

The Salt Hulk seemed keen to host us as guests but there was no food. As we explored we encountered the disembodied head of a fixer being taunted by its fellows. We bargained with it; a new body for answers.

The sailor's body now hosted the rogue fixers head. We learned there were two groups of fixers, those at odds with Ironchild and those that wished to restore it to control of the ship.

We travelled deeper into the body of the hulk. There were pools that seemed to lead down to a raucous underwater party. I used my fetch pearl to bring something up from the depths. It seemed I had caught a giant eel being and it appeared neither tasty nor friendly. I was able to return it to whence it came but not before it struck our tame fixer with its pale staff and blasted from his mind the knowledge we needed most: the location of the food..."

The game was run by the Oddfather himself, Chris McDowall, using his Into the Odd rules. Into the Odd is cool right now, lots of people running it on Hangouts and I can see why. The simplicity of the system and weirdness of the setting appeals to me. There was no combat, no traps, no treasure. It was just good old fashioned exploration and weirdness. This frequently happens in games I run so I was reassured that I enjoyed the session a lot.  It was good to give ItO a run as a player, plus it tied in nicely to my gaming resolution of running or playing all the games I own (in print) in 2016.

If the big fixers carry on the way they have been, there's going to be some shooting next time out.