The Contemporary Quixotist

While not an RPG, I was pretty happy to score this at a Barnes & Noble for a measley TWO BUCKS!

It’s really just a tile-laying game, similar to Carcasonne, in which you try to connect as many churches and windmills as possible, while making sure your village is protected by knights. There’s no actual FIGHTING of the windmills or any other great Quixotisms, but it is a lot of fun if you like that sort of game, and it can be played solo, too!

Now I want to get my hands on that Pancho expansion…

One day, I was thinking about old-school D&D adventure modules (as may of us are wont to do), and how many of their titles seemed to follow a sort of formula. In fact, it seemed that someone could make a series of tables that would allow someone to randomly generate such a title, if one were so inclined.  Which I was. So I did.  You can use it to generate a few silly names just for fun, or to give you a serious working title for your next big campaign.

INSTRUCTIONS: Warm up some percentile dice.  Roll first on the Title Structure Table. This will give you a short fill-in-the-blanks format for the title. Then, roll on the tables that the spaces indicate, and fill in all missing words. Add articles and conjunctions to taste (a, an, and, the, or, etc.). Discard any nonsensical or silly results (i.e. “The Misty Mists of the Mists”) and start again. When completed, you will have your own Old-School Module Title!

You will notice that the tables have some of their entries written in bold, and that each table has two sets of numbers to roll against. The bold entries are words that have been taken from the titles of published Dungeons & Dragons adventures. If you would rather limit your results to these words, roll on the second set of numbers at each table. If you don’t care either way, roll on the first set.

NOTE: It is very rare, but still possible, that you may generate the name of an existing module (e.g. “Keep on the Borderlands”) when using these tables. In those cases, it is obvious what Fate has decreed – you MUST locate and run that particular module for your players, rather than create one of your own. NO EXCEPTIONS! THE DICE DO NOT LIE!

Lastly – if this generator has resulted in an excellent adventure, be sure to let me know about it – write to me at RPGadvocate@gmail.com

TITLE STRUCTURE TABLE

01-09 (ADJECTIVE) (NOUN) on/of (LOCATION)
10-18 (NOUN) on/of the (NOUN)
19-27 (NOUN) on/of the (ADJECTIVE) (NOUN)
28-36 (NOUN) on/of (the) (LOCATION)
37-45 (ADJECTIVE) (NOUN) on/of (the) (ADJECTIVE) (LOCATION)
46-54 (LOCATION) on/of (the) (NOUN)
55-63 (LOCATION) on/of (the) (ADJECTIVE) (NOUN)
64-72 (LOCATION) on/of (the) (LOCATION)
73-81 (PREPOSITION) (on/of) (the) (NOUN)
82-90 (PREPOSITION) the (LOCATION)
91-99 (PREPOSITION) the (LOCATION) of the (NOUN)
00     Choose one of the above or roll again

LOCATION TABLE

01-02     01-03     Aerie
03-04    04-06    Arena
05-06                      Battlefield
07-08    07-09    Borderlands
09-10                       Canyon
11-12      10-12      Castle
13-14                        Catacombs
15-16                        Cave(s)
17-18     13-15       Caverns
19-20     16-18      Cities
21-22     19-21      City
23-24    22-24    Desert
25-26    25-26    Duchy
27-28    27-29    Dungeons
29-30    30-32    Empires
31-32                       Forest
33-34    33-35    Hall
35-36    35-37    Hill
37-38    38-39    Jarl
39-40                     Jungle
41-42                      Kingdom
43-44    40-42    Mountain
45-46    43-45    Oasis
47-48    46-48    Outer Planes
49-50    49-51    Palace
51-52    52-54    Peaks
53-54    55-57    Pits
55-56    58-60    Port
57-58                      Prison
59-60    61-63     Realms
61-62    64-66    Rift
63-64                      River
65-66    67-69    Rock
67-68    70-72    Ruins
69-70                      Sea
71-72    73-75    Slave Pits
73-74    76-78    Steading
75-76                      Stronghold
77-78                      Swamp
79-80    79-81    Temple
81-82    82-84    Tomb
83-84    85-87    Tower
85-86    88-90    Undercity
87-88    91-94    Vale
89-90    95-97    Village
91-00     98-00    Choose a location from your campaign setting, or roll on the PROPER NOUN TABLE

NOUN TABLES
Roll 1d10
1-5 = Roll d% on Noun Table 1
6-10 = Roll d% on Noun Table 2

NOUN TABLE 1
01            01            Adventure
02           02            Ape
03-04    03-04    Assault
05-06                       Axe
07            05           Bane
08-09     06-07   Blade
10-11      08-09   Blood
12             10            Bloodstone (or roll again on Noun table, using the result as a prefix for “-stone”, i.e. “Deathstone”)
13-14       11-12      Bonds
15-16                        Bone(s)
17-18                       Book(s)
19             13-14    Chief
20-21     15-16    City
22                            Cloud Giant (roll on title table)
23-24    17-18    Crown
25-26    19-20    Cult
27-28    21-22    Curse
29            23          Daimyo
30-31    24-25    Danger
32                             Darkness
33-34    26-27    Day
35-36    28-29    Death
37         30            Deceit
38-39  31-32      Depths
40         33            Desolation
41         34             Despair
42         35-36     Destiny
43-44  37-38     Dragons
45-46  39-40     Dread
47         41              Dreams
48-49   42-43    Drow (roll on title table)
50-51                     Dwarf (roll on title table)
52         44-45    Dwellers
53         46            Egg
54-55                    Elf (roll on title table)
56          47            Elixir
57-58   48-49    Evil
59          50           Eye
60          51            Faith
61          52            Falcon
62-63     53-54    Fate
64-65    55-56    Fire Giant (roll on title table)
66-67    57-58    Flame
68           59            Frog
69-70    60-61    Frost Giant (roll on title table)
71          62-63    Gateway
72          64-65    Ghost
73-74   66-67    Giants
75          68-69    Glory
76                            Gnome (roll on title table)
77                           Goblin (roll on title table)
78-79   70-71    Gods
80           72          Heartstone (or roll again on Noun table, using the result as a prefix for “-stone”, i.e. “Fatestone”)
81-82   73-74    Heroes
83-84   75-76    Hill Giant (roll on title table)
85                            Hobgoblin (roll on title table)
86          77-78    Hope
87-88   79-80    Horror(s)
89           81-82     Ice
90           83            Investigation
91            84-85    Island
92                             Jewel(s)
93            86-87    Journey
94            88-89    Keep
95            90-91    King
96            92-93    Kuo-Toa (roll on title table)
97-98     94-99   Choose a location or character from your campaign, or roll on the PROPER NOUN TABLE
99-00     00          Choose one or roll again on NOUN TABLE 2

NOUN TABLE 2
01        01             Legacy
02        02-03    Legions
03        04-05    Life
04        06-07    Light
05        08-09    Lizard
06-07                   Lizard Man (roll on title table)
08-09    10-11    Mage
10                           Mask(s)
11-12    12-13    Master
13-14    14-15    Maze
15          16-17      Mines
16-17   18-19     Minotaur (roll on title table)
18          20           Mists
19-20   22-23    Mountain
21          24-25    Mystery
22-23   26-27    Night
24          28           Nomads
25-26                    Ogre (roll on title table)
27-28                    Orc (roll on title table)
29          29           Palm
30                           Path
31           30          Patriots
32           31           Pearls
33           32          Phoenix
34-35    33-34    Princess
36-37    35-36    Queen
38         37-38     Quest
39         39             Ravager
40         40-41      Reptile (roll on title table)
41-42    42-43    Saga
43         44              Samurai
44         45-46      Sands
45                             Scepter
46         47              Scourge
48                             Scroll(s)
49-50   48-49     Secret
51         50              Serpent
52-53  51-52       Shrine
54         53-54      Skulls
55         55             Slave Lords
56         56-57     Spiders
57         58            Stockade
58                           Storm Giant (roll on title table)
59-60  59-60    Swords
61         61-62     Tales
62         63-64    Talons
63         65            Test
64-65  66-67    Throne
66         68-69    Time
67                           Tome(s)
68-69   70-71    Treasures
70         72-73    Tree
71                            Trident
72          74           Triumph
73          75           Truth
74-75   76-77   Unknown
76-77   78-79   Vault
78          80           Vengeance
79-80   81-82    Wand
81-82    83-84   War
83           85-86   War Rafts
84          87-88    Warlords
85-86                     Warriors
87-88   89-90    Wizards
89          91-92      World
90          93-94    Wrath
91           95           Yakuza
92-97   95-97    Choose a location or character from your campaign, or roll on the PROPER NOUN TABLE
98-00   98-00    Choose one or roll again on NOUN TABLE 1

TITLE TABLE
Roll on the following table and put the title after the noun entry that brought you here (i.e. “Hill Giant Shaman”)

01-50    No title
51-60    King/Queen (choose or roll)
61-66    Prince/Princess (choose or roll)
67-75    Chieftain
76-82    Warlord
83-90    Warrior
91-97    Shaman/Priest/Priestess (choose or roll)
98-00    God

PREPOSITION TABLE

01-09                   Above
10-18    01-14     Against
19-27    15-28    Beyond
28-36    29-42   Descent into
37-45                     Escape (from/to)
46-54    43-56    Expedition to
55-63    57-70   In
64-72                     Into
73-81    71-84     In Search of
82-90                     Through
91-00    85-98   Under
                99-00   Choose one or roll again

PROPER NOUN TABLE
These are names of characters and locations that appear in the titles of D&D modules.

01-03    Al’Akbar
04-06   Alphaks
07-09   Barrier Peaks
10-12     Bigby(‘s)
13-15     Blackmoor
16-18     Castanamir
19-21     Dagger Alley
22-24   Dunwater
25-27   Greyhawk
28-30   Hommlet
31-33    Hydell
34-36   Illefarn
37-39   Inverness
40-42   Istus
43-45   Kohlapur
46-48   Kron
49-51    Krynn
52-54   Llywelyn
55-57   Martek
58-60   Moonshae
61-63    Raven’s Bluff
64-66   Saltmarsh
67-69   Tamoachan
70-72   Tharizdun
73-75   Thyatis
76-78   Traldar
79-81    Tsojcanth
82-84   Waterdeep
85-87   Xanathon
88-00   Choose one, roll again, or select a character or location from your own campaign.

Source for module information: http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/modcode.html