How to write d100 Tables

Why tables
Making tables is fun. They are a form of game prep as much as mapping. They paint a portrait of your setting and locations. They are ready to use during slow moments of games. They are ready for sandbox play or when players go off the rails in a adventure.

I'm doing this in hopes others will make more bigger better tables.

I find small tables repeat results too often. Some people cross out used ones and replace them. Small tables are fine for small probability samples. I like big numbers in gaming more myself.

Some Methods 
Actually these apply to many creative acts if you want to draw or sing or anything. We are all humans with similar brains. Table writing and imagination are skills. If you don't use them they suffer. If you do use them they get better. If you say you cant and you never try you will be right. If you worry about perfection and don't try you will also fail. Don't give up or quit a project. A break is fine if you feel stumped. Go read or watch a movie or talk to friends for a break. But try to add a bit to those hard projects. It is ok to put on back burner and start something else if your brain is on fire with some other idea. You don't have to be great first tries you will get better as long as you don't quit.

Don't waste time by dramatically destroying failure bu crossing out, deleting ot screwing into a ball and chucking it. Practise fixing things instead you learn more. This falls into the perfectionist method of failing and self loathing. Treasure those mistakes, document them, they might give you ideas later.

Keep a notebook and doodle daily. The best advice I was ever given to write or draw is to do it 15-30 minutes a day. Do it even if it is shit. Eventually it becomes a habit not a task. Use journal. Once the skill is a habit you will start scrawling ideas any moment you are left with paper or a device. It might take a few years to get good or a while to notice improvements.

Doodle notes on the bus. take walks. Apparently nature makes you more creative. My new place has trees and parrots and carawongs everywhere and a lake.

Try to write make bigger tables till you hit a hundred. d1000 ads additional problems and I don't recommend you do them alone. It is too easy to repeat. If you can do a d12 now just try and get a bit bigger or add sub tables for some of the possibilities. Only need to increase a bit at a time but if you don't try you will be stuck in a tar pit of self for filling negative prophecy.

It's not stealing it's homage. When you look at art of ideas you like it is ok to get inspired and use ideas from anywhere. All those game books have to get used some time. If you practise shifting genre of ideas you like this too is a good skill to develop. Record any interesting ideas from history, blogs, fantasy art, book illustrations. tv anything in your journal. Remember real life. When you see something in real world ask what would this be like in my game world and springboard from there. Research can come from surprising places like toys, your kids, tv news, garbage bins, you cupboards at home. I recommend Herodotus as the best campaign source book ever written.

If you want to seem more original dig up old stuff like comics, pulp, classics, clip art, find stuff a bit more obscure. I have a 1907 New England almanac with the years monster sightings which I feel could have influenced HPL. Almanacts have good classes of things to list for your setting. Look at adventures and game books you have used and grab the stuff players missed. As a kid I would look through books of pulp magazine illustrations and try to use them to tell sequential stories. It was from boredom but it probably helped my story telling improv skills. Kids have great imaginations because they are not hampered with the "right ideas" or if it has been done before.

Sleep in a bit and record those dreams. I find I doze off imagining stuff and sometimes I get half asleep and dream logic takes over. Try to not dreams when you wake up because they are easy to forget. Focusing on them more helps you remember them.

Just start making lists - perhaps one a page and add to them as ideas come to you. Making lists of things is a good way to improve writing and imagination. Work on settings, locations, characters, history, culture, ecology and really paint a picture of your world.

Break big tables into lots of sub categories. I do a broad d10 category table first then fill out into ten sub things for each category. Sometimes it breaks but that is ok. As long as it gets you moving and it is a bit less intimidating. It is easier to think of  ten assassin hats than a hundred hats.

To start with simple lists of things are easier. Short phrases work nicely. Long sentences and paragraphs require more time and effort so work on something simpler at same time. It is easier to work with things that you know than research based tables. Google searches can do allot of work for you.

Collaborating is good too. Crowd source ideas with your friends on FB or other gamers. Hex descriptions for a hexcrawl are pretty similar. Remember to recycle those unused hexes.

I would be interested if anyone else has any methods or finds any of this of use.

Seriously the just do a bit every day is most important. Once it is a habit you will be coming up with ideas all the time.

I used to be a film set dresser, location finder and I assisted artists by writing lists of stuff. When I started blogging here I did d10. Then d20 then d50 then d100. So it didn't happen overnight for me.

Addendum:
Mr Joel Sparks of Cathulhu made this
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Mun4CYSZ63ZG51UGduWC1yR1E/view
It helps you make tables and calculate odds and stuff...

You can do d100 without 100 things by assigning different numeric odds to items - i started out like this and you can work your way up to the full d100.

We considered making a d100 roulette wheel
I let my players roll d100 for me alott - wheel would be fun

Online Shopping Spree Again

Evolved Grottos & Griffons Teratic Tome
A kid of lost monster manual. I'm not normally a fan of new monsters but lots of good stuff here that looks oldschool. Extend some traditional types well like devils and demons. I will try a few of these and enjoy the layout between early and late 1st ed Ad&d. Im even tempted to get hard cover. A few things not to my taste but great value.

Frontier Explorer #7
Updating the frontier with drone fighters a great SF resource. Such a nice simple game with some nifty rules Im still occasionaly tempted by. I still use knighthawks space combat rules.

Metal Gods of Ur Haddad #1
Im a long term fan of blog and very inspired by this DIY guide tat looks very handy for new players ad dm's alike. Makes we wanna thrash out a zine... The format of a zine is a great one for the gaming table and new players to a setting. Ive considered a zine for character sheets. The earliest DnD stuff was really a zine. Format literally encourages people to think DIY. Rather than be a wizard slave to polished unusable over designed coffee table books that you could never make so will use this. Anyway my favorite bi after the setting istory is the assassin tables. Stuff for mercenaries, street gangs, suburbs of the city, starting characters as a homeless teenage gang. Great stuff densely packed with good stuff.

House on the Hill
The first supplement for metamorphosis alpha game with some free modular housing forms and examples to work from worth grabbing too. This is awesome inspiring sf oldschool stuff good for gammaworld or weird science fantasy ruins. Some great tables and ideas that I will use. Basic adventure is good example of using such a structure. A wet dream for a table jockey like myself. Ive heard metamorphosis alpha players moan - another modular house but these have lots of diversity and make a good mini dungeon fast. With two metamorphosis alpha editions coming out and some new adventures this game seems to be in a new golden age. I'm gonna run a game at next con and might use some of this.

Schweig's Themed Dungeon Generator
I was a bit undewhelmed at first but actually a simple way of creating random dungeons each with own style. Being table mad myself this is pretty good. Im not sure I will use as is because i horribly recycle maps or make up on fly or rip off online maps mostly. As for monster tables I type straight here rather than on a table. But im still tempted and a bit inspired by this and think good for solo play. A few pages with blank forms and some examples. Actualy you could generate lots of other ruins with these too.

Apocalypse Tech Report
This is a good thing for tech of ancients in your post apocalypse games like mutant future or gammaworld. Actually will inspire me in several games. 34 pages or cyborgs, robots, nanobots and gadgets.

Pendragon Bag of Holding
Is very tempting but i have all basic pendragon books from chaosium in early 90s and the older much slimmer campaign so will be tempted while countdown ticking.

d100 Flesh pits of the space gods pt2: lifeforms

Thank you for d100 suggestions - mounts and doom of kingdom have done well and will do some variants of in future.

Bio-dungeon systems might adapt readily producing new strains or mimicking things it has contacted or developing a strain with resistances or a new environment.

You might want to add magic or psionic abilities too depending on the setting (1in6 if available)

More situations for alien flesh dungeon zone:
Flesh or steel? Who will Win, this vs mecha environment would be a nice campaign
Inside giant snail
Inside huge clam to find a giant pearl
Inside a giant egg
Alien ecology growing from crater
Created by madman or intelligence as future of all life
A species which has assimilated most of the universe
Time travelled from future as run out of room there
Has taken a universe, seek a new one
Remnants of old gods still semi alive in crust of planet
Part of god fell in battle, still alive eons later
Demonic presence takes over skyscraper with investigators inside
Trek to dawn of time, only one organism
Alien wizard threatens to break elder gods seals, kill him in his alien flesh palace or else
In the garden of the chaos goddesses womb
Some change could do a plant or macrobe or fungus based one too
Taken to inside of Azathoth to live by Nyarlathotep as a trick
Alien or elder gods dreamlands or operating a Tillinghast resonator
A complex being taken over grows worse and more alien

1d10 Quick Inhabitants
Or use more complex d100 version

1 Gelatinous horror
2 Plant or fungus like
3 slug thing
4 Grub or caterpillar or worm
5 Centipede armoured segmented
6 Crustacean nightmare 6-12 limbs
7 Deep sea fish like, glass like flesh and bones,glowing body or lure
8 Quadraped or hexaped mostly air breathing
9 Biped humanoid possible made to combat or made from other humanoids repurposed
10 Outsiders

1d12 Colony variations
1 Fungus, mould or yeast
2 Giant microscopic horrors or macrobes
3 Plant based
4 Everything made of raw meat and bone
5 Everything basically gelatinous slime, often semi transparent or green
6 Colonial Arthropod, perhaps even forming big creatures from modular ones
7 Reptilian full of dinosaur like monsters
8 Hideous tentacled oozing alien mutant horrors
9 Hyper evolving starts simple but develops fast, even faster if consumes more advanced life
10 Technological mimics living or vice-versa
11 Hybrid roll twice a d10
12 Unusual spacial and temporal properties

1d12 Size
1 Microscopic colony
2 Swarm of coin sized
2 Rat sized 1 foot
3 Cat sized 2 foot
4 Dog or goat or sheep sized 3-5
5 Man or pig or dear sized 5-6 foot
6 Lion or tiger or bear sized
7 Horse or cow sized
8 Oxen or draft horse size
9 Hippo or rhino size or elephant size
10 Gargantuan whale or megafauna size
11 Titan, colossus or huge dinosaur size
12 kaiju may be unable to leave room

1d12 Ecology
1 Placid grazer or filter feeder beast
2 Feeds from system walls placidly produces or filters chemicals
3 Scavenges materials from internal system damage or dead organisms
4 Collects and feeds from outside, adapted to environment and target
5 Seeks outsiders to purge from system and hunts parasites or intruders in disguise
6 Parasite off system, feeds of natives and hides within, disguise form or at least pheromones
7 Repair and sealing damage feeds on unwanted or damaged beyond healing structures or fauna
8 Symbiotic species found a niche in biology feeding on some waste
9 Symbiotic species used as food organism by others
10 Symbiotic predictor defends system, harvests food and shares with system
11 Nurse cares for eggs and children, defends if needed
12 Butcher harvester species evolve into warrior drones if numbers increase to certain % pop

1d12 Bioweapons
1 Pincers like a crab for stabbing, cutting and nipping
2 Claws, hooks or blades for stabbing and slicing and skewering prey
3 Teeth for biting and eating
4 Biological missile launcher like a dart gun or bolt launcher, 1in6 poison
5 Biological chemical launcher like acid, napalm, tear gas, poison
6 Biological explosives propelled missile or suicide bomb
7 Drone hive to release swarm attacks of tiny creatures or to scout
8 Mind control parasite or chemical
9 Web shooter for entangling, building cocoons or structures
10 Quills or spines that damage attackers, 1in6 poison, 1in6 shoot
11 Tendril, tongue or tentacle limb for ranged entangling or edged attack
12 Biological energy weapon like laser, plasma gun, shock touch

1d12 Biodefences
1 Armoured articulated exoskeleton
2 Armoured rigid shell can retract into or roll into sphere
3 Gas attack if threatened, obscuring fog, irritant or poison
4 Chaff swarm released if attacked to distract foes
5 Slippery skin secretion acts as armour, resist entangles or grapples
6 Toxic flesh or skin secretions
7 Spikes on surface injure attackers
8 Stealth field or chameleon skin
9 Acid or flammable blood
10 Sonar or other superior senses
11 Cary toxic disease on skin
12 Regenerates wound frighteningly fast

 1d100 Inhabitants
Example creatures

1 Floating gasbag jellyfish with stinging tendrils drift everywhere aimlessly 1in6 glow, many sizes
2 Jelly pods, thousands covering floors, fragile and nutritious
3 Man o war like colony with huge mass of stinging tendrils guards doors
4 Gelatinous brain guarded by other creatures it controls with mental powers
5 Reef like structure of gelatinous tendrils crawling with life forms
6 Huge crawling transparent jelly wanders about eating things likes to drop from roof
7 Rolling jelly sphere engulfs and dissolves intruders to system
8 Geometric crawling gelatin mass with paralysing touch fills corridors eating stray waste
9 Gelatinous pod traps prey with tendrils and stores inside life support fluid inside body
10 Eye horror resembles a huge eye may signal other beasts and has mental abilities
11 Spherical plant or plant pod rolls and bites foes, pack creature often serve as guards or hunting
12 Tripod man sized walking plant or fungus with stinging tendril and teeth
13 Shambling tree like plant or fungus with huge tentacles and toothed mouths
14 Quadruped or hexapod running predators, actually plant or fungus horror but wolf like
15 Spherical plant or fungal pod with tentacles, legs and a stinger can jump
17 Screaming fungus or plant alerts other creatures, mostly planted where needed
17 Plant or fungus with corrosive tendrils, mostly planted where needed as guards
18 Slug like colonial organism like a plant or fungus with stabbing or energy tipped tendrils
19 Huge venus flytrap or sticky tendril like structures trap and dissolve strangers
20 Huge pitcher plant like trapper lures with bait into chamber, seals then floods with acid
21 Titanic slug thing spits acid or bites intruders mostly just grazing
22 Swarm of slugs covering area in slippery slime
23 Titan snail with chambers and creatures in shell
24 Carnivorous snail with monstrous multiple heads
25 Swarm of snails encrust every surface, spray dye if hurt
26 Huge spiny shell on snail used to stab 1in6 poison
27 Savage clam toothed horror clamps ankles, hide under water or in cracks
28 Shelled tentacled horror can retreat into shell if in danger
29 Tentacled mass on slug foot stings prey and pulls inside stomach
30 Octopoid or squidlike beast, burrows or swimming varieties, quite clever, camouflage
31 Mass of squirming naked grubs feeding on scraps
32 Mounds of threadlike creeping worms looking for a host
33 Huge leeches tempted to feed from intruders
34 Worms with large retractile fern like structures for peaceful filter feeding
35 Titan caterpillars milked by other creatures or harvested for meat
36 Ribbon like flatworms entangle and digest prey by vomiting stomach onto trapped prey
37 Bristle covered worm entangles and stabs its brittle toxic spines in victims
38 Tiny grub enters body and controls brain, enslaving to will of the system
39 Fleshy flower like structure emits radiation or heat or other energy while body mostly buried
40 Savage huge carnivore Caterpillar, very fast and aggressive, hear through walls
41 Armoured centipede segmented worm with poison bite hunting
42 Swarm of grazing millipedes produce irritant gas if disturbed
43 Hook toothed worm attach to ceiling and grab things that pass
44 Armoured worms hide in holes, shoot missiles, some explosive or chemical
45 Worm with segments that detach and some attack and some flee
46 Segmented worms have a missile or chemical or energy attack
47 Disguised as fleshy food creature but traps with hooked tentacles and strangles
48 Armoured thorny starfish slow but determined predator crushes with spiky arms
49 Toothed burrowing worm hides under ground
50 Squirming worms try to lay eggs in intruders orifices
51 Crablike horror with pincers
52 Lobster like thing
53 Trilobites grazing peacefully
54 Scorpion like monster
55 Spider like monster
56 Swarm of bugs, trilobites or crabs crawl in mindless mass grazing but attack threats
57 Swarm of bugs, trilobites or crabs colony may unite to form larger organism
58 Colony of flesh shredding swarming beetles
59 Huge wasp like flyer with stinger and egg injector
60 Horned or pincer faced beetles grazing, will be aggressive if threatened
61 Horrible beast mostly all mouth, amphibious with a glowing lure in mouth
62 Glowing tentacled horror communicate with lights or can camouflage self
63 Huge elongated eel like amphibian with tooth filled face
64 Horrible worm thing uses corpses for bait for ambush
65 Huge flat thing covers floor or ceiling for crushing ambush attack
66 Huge spiny sphere roll over foes and impales with poison spines
67 Colony of luminous tentacles with stinger cells move slowly and eats stung victims
68 Rolling sphere with horizontal mouth swallows whole and rolls away
69 Tree like imobile creature with tentacles and mouths
70 Burrowing squid like creature bursts from walls or floor or vents
71 Hexapod arthropod horror with hooked butchers weapons for rapid killing
72 Winged flying arthropod horror like a praying mantis
73 Dinosaur like creature bristling with natural weapons
74 Streamlined high speed runner and ambush predator
75 Chimera like hybrid creature with multiple heads and specialist limbs
76 Draconic monster with wings and natural weapons
77 Slow moving behemoth grazing but might stampede
78 Huge grazer bristling with spines and spikes for defence, aggressive if cornered
79 A large ambush predator camouflaged to blend with floors and walls
80 Humanoids can adapt and modify form for infiltration and confusing enemies otherwise horrid
81 Biped humanoid possible made to combat or made from other humanoids repurposed
82 Exoskeletal multi limbed insectoid or arachnids or crablike horror infantry and workers
83 Brutish primitives like abhumans (reptilian or fish men), cavemen, orcs or goblinoids
84 Hideous mutant humanoids with tentacles for arms or squid faces
85 Resemble armoured humanoids but hidden features, horrible features underneath
86 Humanoid from distance but disguise easily shed or chitin splits open revealing awful thing
87 Repurposed humanoid tissue shell with colony of creatures replacing major organs
89 Gelatinous humanoids adapt to conditions and opponents with varied biological weapons
90 Biological androids created to fight and infiltrate, might be different coloured if non spy drone
91 Outsiders eaten or consumed in past just want to escape
92 Outsider lost explorers just entered
93 Outsiders lost expedition want out, starting to crack from losses
94 Outsider castaway desperate and mad alone managed to survive
95 Outsiders assimilated and loyal to the system and hostile to own kind or other outsiders
96 Outsiders become hybridized to ecology from long survival, loyal to the great world god
97 Outsiders but possibly ancient or alien beyond possibility or comprehension
98 Remains of outsiders civilisation and dead, possibly degenerate devolved remnants still surviving
99 Outsider alien intelligence home destroyed now only survive in system
100 An outsider alien presence searching for means to take over and exploit system

d100 Flesh pits of the space gods pt1: scenery

I have alluded to fleshy tunnel complexes a few times. Some possible example include:

In a ruined section of a starship, flesh has grown, replacing starship sections with alien tissue instead of steel. Is it a mutant? An alien? A fungus? A colonial life form? A machine that has come to resemble a living thing?

When a outer god swallows you and takes it to the inside of it's body in overspace

When party have to get inside a party member to save their body from microscopic monsters

A mysterious huge cube of flesh with mucous dripping entries is found in a isolated valley

Inside the body of a sleeping kaiju
Under the temple of an elder god is the trapped body of a god
Inside the sleeping god
Inside the wale that ate your fleet
Inside a biological alien ship
In the dungeon of the meat god or a god of chaos
Inside a living Island
In the hentai dimension

Between the dungeon levels is a colossal creature maintaining the dungeon, birthing monsters, and regrowing doors and chests and treasure

So having established the need for this horror here we go. I recommend cave geomorphs but I might try designing some. This is one of those things I have always wanted.

1d10 Basic Bio-Complex Sections
1 Entry Portals
2 Flesh Tunnels
3 Fluid Transmission Tunnels
4 Digestive Tract
5 Refinery Organs
6 Defence Structure
7 Reserve Storage
8 Reproductive System
9 Habitat Organ
10 Mastermind

1d10 Basic Bio-Complex Sections
1 A great living portcullis gate with teeth, dripping with fluid opens into a huge chasm with side passages and a main transit tunnel
2 A swarm of small insectoids form into a doors or walls and back, tiny creatures make up walls, floors and ceilings reconfiguring for defence or rapid transit, some form a disguise over entry
3 A great bio gatehouse with guardian chambers above entry maw and sensory apparatus to warn them, inside is a chamber with a second defencive gatehouse then a hub that breaks into more sections
4 A great sphincter of muscle requires special attention to open, corridors may constrict, spasm or be covered in phlegm
5 A fleshy hole with bristles and toxic secretions keep away outsiders, mites and guardians might guard too, usually not too visible from a distance, distant sounds echo inside with various large round chambers and spiralling corridors
6 A great flap of tissue opens to vent gas and waste, inside is a wet tunnel with strong air currents spiralling into the section into a great hub of smaller tunnels
7 A great stinking pit with great bristles where waste products are vented. A series of foul chambers of rotten matter with tunnels twisting into the interior
8 A great chamber mouth with great fibrous filter plates inside opening. Intruders can slip through when gate mouth opens, horrible shrimp like lice live in the fibres and attack intruders that smell wrong
9 A great dripping fleshy pit with a coloured pool is a barrier to open spaces inside and may clench shut to keep out danger, opens for native fauna who bring input like food to system here
10 A cocoon like gate way splits open in middle into pie slice triangles to admit beings. An eye or many more on tendrils or on door identifies friendly beings to admit
11 Dry skin like walls with bristles and strong air currents blow through here sometimes with aerosolised fluid or biological culture simulating local weather. Tunnels may flex slightly or have pressure changes indicating change on way
12 Squirming tentacle lined corridors, often slimy and possible hostile if system able to respond bu=y usually tasting intruders but may also carry welcome passengers through system
13 Quivering tight flesh found corridor, hard to stand on as moves and contracts when disturbed or touched. Air moves rapidly with harsh internal weather. Occasionally a high pressure shock wave blasts through but more often just coughing slime or intruder through system. Can be very dangerous and may rupture intruder eardrums
14 Huge variegated plates of metallic chitin in geometric configurations might appear to be alien craft but is living. Articulated claws, and eye stalks  guard doorways of chitin armoured flesh
15 Gelatinous quivering slippery slimy tunnels, may sink up to ankles, knees, waste or deeper, some areas more like a moving river of slow flowing ooze
16 Bone like shape structures with with skin over frame, walls are metallic bone under leather feel surface. Great valve doors seal sections. Cold and stark mostly but some warm, even fur covered.
17 Scaled plates and curved structures, ridged corrugation with tubes and pipes running over all surfaces. Regular access ports interface with other sections, scales forming an iris valve door
18 Limestone calcium like caverns dripping with fluids and even life forms, hidden chambers, under fluid chambers, occasional fleshy doors or secret moving walls hide rooms
19 Slimy stringy threads cover surface of tunnels that seem to be made from a mass of fibres,  often cramped with damages sections with broken bundles and threads hanging down blocking views. Creatures easily squeeze inside the walls and use to ambush or hide
20 Rigid fleshy surface with regular sucker cups like octopus tentacles or some other fleshy structure with cloaca doorways and vent openings, some dry others more mobile and protrusions move and may even have a stream of fluid flowing through it
21 High Pressure doorways into round drains where high pressure fluids flood through. Some flow constantly others more intermittent and tend to run in parallel. Opening wrong door makes some fluid burst out flooding an area before wall and tunnels close
22 A huge rhythmic pulse of mighty heart like pump or multiple pumps working all sorts of fluids through system, area spasms with every beat as titanic organs pulse
23 Huge cavern with a porous filtration reef with a rich ecology to clean systems liquids
24 Huge floating tree shaped structures immersed in liquid cells further cleansing system fluids, creatures here feeding
25 Chambers with canals throughout with rich flora and fauna and goods transported in biological pods like barrels or bigger
26 A huge chamber with water storage and an ecology of large docile filter feeder and some other creatures in a slow paces area
27 Great drain way always full with strong current and some fast predator antibodies
28 Great drain way empty mostly, a back up with many tunnels and hubs, unwelcome squatters
29 Great chasm lake with polluted foul liquids, mostly quiet
30 Great lake with remnants of things consumed long ago, survivors somehow survive in community
31 Sponge geometric tissue lined cavern, dripping with chemicals, many dormant, most empty but sometimes past food preserved in gelatinous slabs. Living creatures might live here or be awakened as system reanimates. Prone to seasonal chem floods, quakes, gas but mostly kinda clean
32 Huge caverns of flesh, tight with gas bubbling up from covered chemical lake producing nutrient for the greater body from raw materials. Quakes may make floor unstable and ripple or tear like a swimming pool cover over an acid lake
33 Caverns of tiny creatures crawling and swarming and gnawing and dismembering trash or corpses. When full they creep into mouths set around walls. New bugs hatch from mounds of eggs by workers
34 Huge vats of sweet liquids are stirred in giant bio vats then shaped into novelty pellets and structures for storage, unwelcome creatures chased away by guards. Sugar crystal barges transport selves and goods to other feeding areas
35 Giant caterpillars grazing on fungus happily like cows, hunter predators come to feed off the crying dumb beasts and occasionally stampede, actually this party of ecology transmits nutrient around system
36 Insectoid creatures chew on foodstuff then store in hive cells where it refines over time with their saliva into a superfood. Guards protect the honey from thieves, some have additional properties much sought after
37 Huge insects or grubs graze on fungus their huge abdomens filled with fluid other smaller creatures milk and transport to other creatures in the system, trails of tiny bugs follow each colossal grazer with some carrying huge sticky droplets for delivery
38 Radioactives refinery of glowing pods connected by pipes that make up most of the walls and ceilings. Many pipes hold high pressure radioactive fluid or steam and are dangerous to breach. Bulkhead doors seal compartments and speciality armoured denizens transport dangerous materials
39 This area is filled with specialised hibernation pods where data is extracted from living brains of outsiders. Each jar holds a prisoner which neural tendrils attach themselves to the creature for life support and to form a brain link. Data DNA and memory RNA is duplicated, refined into a cylinder of fluid and taken to the system brains for study. Useful beings get stored in best condition, other keep only heads or brains
40 A biological foundry with hot humid air, huge pumping bellows, chemical and thermal furnaces, rending metals and more resilient materials into fuel or building materials, workers scurry about but might try to use materials here as weapons if threat detected
41 A huge cavern with a fermenting lake of biological agents producing nutrient for the system, other creatures lurk inside and great fleshy pseudopod stir the lake
42 Round tunnel, warm to touch, feel skin tighten beneath your feet but
43 Series of chambers and tunnels is a organic factory for grinding and shredding materials before chemical processing. Often not functioning and dormant but when alive begins to try moving into serrated grinding ridges on roof and ceiling sides. Floor like a muscular conveyor belt and lubricating fluids flow into corridors
44 Cavern dripping with thick fluid with gelatinous creatures hungrily breaking down creatures that have been consumed or wandered in here, a few creatures still live and wander hopelessly seeking escape
45 A huge chasm or series of chasms with a great lake and veins and curtain like ridges growing over the dome ceiling. Consumed things may be in here and an ecology of organisms and parasites
46 Canal with thick gelatin rivers crawling with slime creatures and antibody defenders, squirming with translucent life forms
47 Rivers and pools of foamed eggs and frogspawn flowing through caverns being assessed for deviation and contaminants removed before being grown into different beings elsewhere
48 A cavern system heaped with garbage and trash, fermenting away with creatures and parasites crawling everywhere with recycled system fragments and other things in rotten mounds. Some areas more flooded, some creatures build dams and rafts from scraps
49 Winding caves full of highly refined grades of sticky toxic scum, nasty and roaming with creatures, flammable gas and stinking clouds common
50 Squirming folds of flesh with rotten matter, crawling with worms and other creatures
51 Biological gate station with murder holes in ceilings of toxins or corrosives, guards sweep through after to mop up any survivors
52 Barracks with hundreds of troop creatures hanging from rails, in pods if for long term storage
53 Bio armoury where creatures designed and grown for use as weapons, bioguns shoot living ammo or heavy weapons that walk and are guided by troops to position. Specialist brains in sealed section develop new weapons to respond to intruders
54 Defencive fort to guard a section can be flooded with gas and contains troops. Bulk of troops remain inside and shoot intruders through slots on surfaces. Many dead end traps with huge valve doors
55 Swarm drone hangers where scouts and harvester and even some war drones live in between missions outside. Often dedicated to flyers. Often long term storage ones have cocoon pods for inhabitants
56 Prison cell for interesting prisoners to have brains extracted or bodies studies. Also contain defective units for recycling and possibly remains of an old queen or young rivals to the system's dominant mind. Also keep prisoners of rival systems and defeated colonies
57 A great fortress filled with horrors for war
58 Gladiator arena where prisoners tested against system weapons and warrior drones and for war games
59 Colony of outsiders really a fake infiltrator training ground full of spy and decoy drones, various hives have different degrees of success at this task, some may be so deep they don't know they are bugs
60 Experimental weapons division where brains and smarter troop types experiment with outsider powers and abilities to turn against them, human examples might captured might be here as well as the alien versions. Here is where psionic or magical or even solid state human tech is developed and weaponized. Alien versions might include fluid in tubes, symbiotic hive swarms or other strange form
61 Gelatinous lake with stored nutrient, parasites try to steal and defender organisms hunt them and other intruders
62 Huge vats of embryos in stasis of system ecology creatures. Guardians protect them
63 Chasms with rows of biological cell pods where creatures are stored  for reserves
64 Stowage of chemicals in huge sacks of gelatinous silos
65 Stowage of raw materials like calcium and metal in hexagonal ingots in huge stacks
66 Reserve biomass for repair and building projects
67 Biomedical tissue in hexagonal cells with repair creatures monitoring system to respond to damage
68 Garbage and remains of outsiders stowed for analysts and possible duplication, encased in slime inside skins
69 Corpses of local system fauna, parasites and outsiders stored for recycling in liquid stowed in vats
70 Chasm with chemicals locked in crystalline form, a forest of crystalline tree like structures different colours for different chemicals
71 Egg chamber with egg tubes laying eggs on an assembly line with some chambers dedicated to manipulating embryos in eggs with chemicals and surgery
72 Incubation chambers where eggs bathed in radiation and various frequency EM spectrum in crystal chambers, moved by workers to hatchery
73 Hatchery where workers care for new organisms and take them to first feeding chambers for special diets to prepare them for roles
74 Reproduction vats where larger more sophisticated beings grown in huge pools with fleshy walls with umbilical cords feeding foetal creature
75 Brooder hives where creatures raised to maturity, millions of meeping creatures hungry for next feeding, fleshy pens with globes of light and heat from ceilings and rivulets of water and food pellets dispensed from orifices
76 Tight flesh globes in giant grape like clusters crawling with neotant life forms actually preserve DNA of system components, defenders very protective
77 Huge brood caterpillar like grubs lay eggs and birth creatures which are quickly carried away by nurse creatures
78 Whale like creatures in vats brood mares to all kind of creatures that swim free to fluid transport tubes to right sections
79 Fungous cavern filled with spores where fungal mounds grow into many forms and functions
80 Rigid pods packed with eggs or DNA samples, piled in huge heaps in cavern sorted by nurse creatures and some taken to hatcheries
81 Gigantic hive full of cells where creatures rest and are fed, some in long term hibernation
82 Huge termite mound like hive with thousands of workers resting and eating before setting off to work
83 Huge cavern with thousands of caves where creatures lair, some sealed and hibernating behind cocoon like barriers
84 Huge caverns with caterpillar titans with other creatures living inside them in orifices which also feed them
85 A camp of lost explorers may be friendly and join forces or try to rob and kill party, possibly cultists or under system control
86 A desperate castaway or lost explorer living in a shack built in quiet section has learnt to survive here
87 A human settlement where infiltrator creatures practise being human before fieldwork, many so deep don't know the truth
88 A ramshackle town built of rubbish and garbage where feral inhabitants have learnt to liver
89 A sealed metal bunker base or tower of someone hiding here who does not wish to be seen
90 A ruin or crashed craft of some other species with desperate survivors living inside
91 Pools in flesh cavern floor with floating brains, guardians on prowl for intruders and possible aged retired guards act as communicators with brains will
92 Great brain citadel with swarms of creatures managing the brain and sending messages to body subsystems, beings may even be sentient and self aware or even control the great brain but others are mindless component drones
93 Great cluster of nerve pylons crackling with energy transmitting commands to subsystems and controlling alarm systems
94 Great chamber with huge pillars growing clusters of brains, atendants pick them and plant in sections needing fresh neural control nodes
95 A great brain with neural threads in every directions, guardian arachnids climb on threads and spin new ones and weaves others into webs
96 Great vats cover chambers with fluid and brains inside. Some like above ground pools, others in pillars reaching to the ceiling Guardians patrol them and tend them till the grow bigger and need moving to a bigger tank
97 A great brain queen brood mother all brain and egg production responds to system needs and creates egg types required to be hatched or stored elsewhere, queen may be hostile or willing to communicate
98 Sealed pods with captured brains from many captives. The master brain here has mastered many languages and communication skills and is curious about strangers talking with them to assess if they should be added to collection.
99 Roaming tentacled brains crawl around a damp fleshy maze exchanging data by rubbing and fondling each other. Strangers will get similar treatment but disturbing routine sends area into panic and chaos. Security then called in to eliminate threat
100 Mastermind chambers where creatures record data chemically in fluids to feed to brains, some areas are labs others more like libraries where brain beasts come to feed and swap ideas. Eventually they wander off to implant selves in walls where needed. Some areas specialize in analyzing outsiders goods or cultures

d12 Luminescence
1 Dark and tries to douse lighting and responds with hostility
2 Totally dark
3 Some luminescent organisms and organs
4 Dim bio luminescence
5 Luminescent swarms move about and attracted to light
6 Weak lighting cells, flicker
7 Weak lighting cells, day night cycle
8 Weak lighting cells, lights up where heat or motion change
9 Good lighting, flicker
10 Good lighting, day night cycle
11 Good lighting, lights up where heat or motion change
12 Very good lighting

d12 System Health
1 Sick desperate for resources
2 Dying seeks to reproduce or regrow again
3 Dormant awaiting to revive or respond to damage
4 Awakening or shutting down, system slow and mostly inert
5 System operational and operating normally
6 System ok a bit buggy at the moment, immune system sluggish
7 Parasite species infest system in many niches
8 Parasite influencing system
9 Symbiote living in system taken on protective role
10 Outsiders have a settlement hidden inside
11 Colonisation mode ready to divide colony
12 Hyper aggressive in war mode

12 Point DoomTrack
1-3 System ignores intruders mostly 1in12 encounter per day
4-6 Security anti bodies start to look for trouble 1in12 encounter per hour
7-9 Tailer maid hunters come after molecular trail, security drones increase 1in12 encounter per 10 minute turn
10-11 May attempt communications, start war production scales
12 Non essential systems shut down, sections sealed while army sweeps everywhere systematicly
13+ System will seal systems and start reconfigering whole system to stopping intruder, even jettisoning or destroying or reabsorbing a section

Start at 1
+1 First patrol killed
+1 Third patrol killed
+1 Tenth patrol killed
+1 Quarantine or sterile area breached (reproduction, brain)
+1 Military force defeated
+1 First very large creature killed
+1 Sub system brain damaged or attacked
+1 Babies or reproductive systems damaged
+1 Any action causing section damage needing repair drones
+1 Any action causing section to shut down
+1 Any explosions, detonations of damaging fires
+1 First wall or door breached
+1 Third wall or door breached
+1 Tenth wall or door breached
-1 Disguise scents with local material or covering self in native gore
-1 Infect self with local parasites that mask you
-2 help or save babies
-1 kill a hostile organism like a parasite infestation in the system
-1 Manipulate local alarm nerve cluster to wind back distress levals
-1 Assist a native creature
-3 Temporary truce with organism
-5 Symbiosis pact with organism

Designing Stuff

I will do a d100 table of first interesting subject requested that hits the comment box - if goes well will do again. Come at me bro...

Have lots of layout work and some printing to do and will aim to have several publications ready for events. Will publish a bootleg edition game product just to test the interest at mainstream zine show. I'm supposed to be painting but not going well for a commission. Work increased to so some diary stuff to plan for a few months. Zine Fair and EYE con game event mostly working on.

Things to do

Metropolis Con Game
Reread Metropolis and get locations ready and make a doom track which activates events in play. Make envelopes with personal secrets and characters.

Im Thinking:

Male astronaut age 28 planning to depart for space soon
Male cavalry officer age 26 back from front with gasmask and pistol
Male psychiatrist age 60 with interest in strange rituals and cults
Male rich idle youth age 21 with very high status from Metropolis bank father
Male Historian 46 with interst in old city records and construction
Male worker age 26 has stolen ID to live in over city

Female doctor age 36 has worked on a submarine voyage
Female police age 42 officious and carries a truncheon and whistle
Female scientist age 32 interested in anything mysterious
Female aviator age 27 a famous pilot and traveller
Female Dancer age 22 fem fatal about to start shooting first feature film
Female Film Maker  29 travelled far and wide shooting military spectacles, movies and tribal rituals

Secrets.... will make more than players and give in envelope, some will be set up
Deep one?
Cultist?
Insane?
A dreamer prone to visions?
ill keep rest secret till played...

I might do a table for visiting decopunk planets

Octopus Princess Big Surface Adventure
Im gonna do a big board game map of seaside village. Make doom track and might get giant dice.

Pregen octopus princeses
Princess Sparkles who can make a magical illusions and has the best hairstyle
Princess Moonbeam who can turn invisible and shy and smart
Princes Seashadow a necromancer who can make a zombie friend and is gloomy
Princess Crystal who shoots magic beams and is fiesty
Princess Pearl who can heal and is a bit bossy
Princess Freya who's magic makes her strongest and starts with a sword
Prince Tophat who's magic can charm a human and is most romantic
Prince Merlin who's magic shoots fire and he is grumpiest
Prince Knight casts defensive magic and likes to fight with a sword and sheild
Prince Spex likes to read lots has magic to understand languages

Octopus Items
A magic sword hurts two legged beings
A magic trident charm sea creatures once
A Magic Mirror casts clairvoyance once
A magic sceptre can cast hold person once
A magic cordial 2d4 times 1d6 healing potions
A wand creates fog cloud works for 1hp

some tiles, a doom track and other props to make like a baordgame
tables for location encounters

Long Stairs
I want some official looking briefing emails
equipment lists
character sheets for zero lv and then final classes at first
base maps good too

should i start a zero then level up in game chapters or just set at a higher level and send on a set mission???

Club pix of friday dnd gang - up to 4 tables at times

Sandbox Hexcrawl Gossip
A few have commented about this of late. For me sandbox better for drop in players as gives them freedom within setting to more. With my more regular games I make stories to fit characters more instead of on the fly. Marvel games is very drop in. DnD and vikings been very consistent players so more a set menu. Vikings especially as I'm using lots of products to help me. Im happy for them to do something different but will put back on the rails. When they get too good, time to raid Cthulhu's Tomb.

DnD i give players lots of freedom and have the most tables

I find set scripts break lots so goals, links and threads need to be flexible. Scenarios where party meant to lose then they luck out and win, or a hostage is taken but party slaughter kidnappers.

Planet Psychon one of my favorite hexcrawls. Random hexes with not much interaction let me play lots with every new kingdom. Early on players moved from hex to hex every few sessions but last game spent all in same hex. Fixing problem of each hex was kinda the point of game. Last years Psychon con game was a linear adventure with sandbox distractions but all got to endgame by end in a very different way. The map above was used and nobody went to sea. Several went to mountains and explored tunnels using random bunker and subworld tunnels from the psychon book

Part one meet and great then crash plane gather survivors as zero lv band members
Part two go through desert, get water from magenta hills till reach bottom of hex
Part three all have adapted to 4th lv local mutants and go kill wizard for Colossus the AI

So the desert was sandbox but funneled to same destination from same start. Im sorry nobody went to sea. I didnt expect everyone to start the Psychonian custom of tasting or eating every being they met. thats the magic of players messing with your stuff.

For gamma world I looked at map near many modules I like set and found Beaver Island in the great lakes and used as basis for sandbox. Placed several bunkers and did some tables and factions. Worked great. Escaping enemies would return to be killed by party.  I kinda like Mutant Epoch  for approach of having random room contents allowing you to replay or run again with your own maps. I dont like the scripted boxed text but a sense could use book and all could play like a giant fighting fantasy novel.

My dungeon zones i did for originally my long stairs then started using in my normal game to make quick dungeons. I got lots of use out of the early TRS monster treasure tables book and the geomorphs so these zones were attempt to make my own. Worked very well and ran my Redbrick Style for last year for most dungeons on my Exile Island setting. The gothic version proving good and have a fair way to go. Goblin Mine Zone next.

Recycling old tables is a great benefit. Adding a extra table is easy way to paint a portrait of local life and good to train creativity. Adding a dwarf feature table to my gothic zone made a great haunted Dwarf city. With a sandbox hexcrawl like a good computer game some locations are set pieces. Some set pieces are just locations with local encounters but others Some locations could be an adventure, npc or part of a quest. Whatever players don't explore needs to be recycled. It is a tragedy if they never enter hex2305 you wrote something for. Sometimes a highlighter pen is handy for used ones or a ruled line. Bur don't be afraid to move a set piece if it keeps story happening.

I guess I'm good at ad-libbing rather than rote learning so it suits me to work like this. I suspect some ppl dont quite mean same thing as me with sandbox or hexcrawl and have different problems to me. The whole universe is my dungeon. Only a problem if I'm ill or tired or distracted by cat girls during game.

Some Armour and ENC notes

ArmourOn psychon I use piece armour and to have most strangers in greaves and hero harness in most cases.

I use personal discretion how much is stackable but mostly suits win out in long run for weight and mobility. Skills WP to enhance armour, move better, use shields, use capes and dodge to increase AC are available.If your body has different armour types an enemy could make a called shot against the weakest individual one.

A Gladiator with a full helm and hero harness and plate arm +4 AC 12lb but a called shot could target his bare flesh with zero armour. Skilled fighter could actually get an advantage over this partial armour.

A Gladiator with full helm, hero harness, metal leg greaves and vambraces and a small shield would get +6 14lb and his lowest AC is +1 vs a called shot
Piece armour sounds gross but weaker vs called shots. A called shot is normaly -4 but a called shot specialty NWP (halves penalty for called shot) would effectively give the attacker +2 to hit piece armour which is an interesting aberration for bean counting rule breaking players.
Im considering allowing a DEX save vs any thrown or launched missile to be avoided at long range for an attack action if you can see it coming - or have a WP skill do it. Skill could be linked to martial arts arrow cutting tree of WP or something

Light wear
Hero Harness +1 double straps for weapons across chest with metal disk in centre 2lb
Cloak +1 a heavy cloak for elements as used by watchmen and shepherds 3lb
Heavy Studded cloak +2 studded with metal rings or wooden discs, heavy hide 6lb -1MV

Limbs
Set of Leather Braces +1 (covering legs) & vambraces (covering arms) 2lb
Metal Greaves +1 leg armour 2lb
Metal Vambraces +1 arm armour 2lb
Plate arm +1 good for +1 damage punching 6lb -1mv
Plate arms +2 good for +1 damage punching 12lb -2mv
Plate Boots +2 8lb -1MV

Headgear
Light Helmet +1 2lb pot or skullcap or heavy circlet
Full Helmet +2 4lb heavy knight helmet halves sense checks
Hero Helmet +3 6lb ornamental and bulky halves sense checks (-1 on d6 surprise rolls)

Body
Leather chest plate or apron +1 5lb
Scale Shirt +2 8lb
Chain Shirt +3 12lb -1MV
Chest Plate +4 12lb -2MV
Half Plate +5 16lb -3MV

Legs and lower body
Heavy Leather trousers with thigh high boots +1 4lb
Scale trousers or skirt +2 8lb -1MV
Chain trousers or skirt +2 12lb -2MV
Plate trousers +3 16lb -3MV

Suits of armour
Padding +1 felt or silk or quilted cotton or paper suit +1 4lb
Hard Leather suit +2 heavy hide or boiled cabouli leather or scaled leather 6lb
Studded leather suit +3 leather or padding with metal or wooden studs or rings 12lb -1MV
Scalemail suit +4 metallic layered scales 16lb -2MV
Chainmail suit +5 chain rings interlocking 20lb -3MV
Heavy chain suit +6 thickened chain rings interlocking and padding 30lb -6MVPlatemail +7 chainmail with extra metal plates 30lb -6MV
Field Plate +8 interlocking metal suit 24lb -3MVFull Plate +9 interlocking metal suit 24lb -3MV
Heroic Plate +10 40lb -6MV

Sheilds
Buckler +1 used for blocking only counts if prepared 1d4 dam 2lb
Small +1 covers at all times from front 1d6 dam 4lb
Medeum +1 +2 vs missiles knight or viking or spartan shield covers from front and sides 1d6 dam 8lb
Heavy +2 +3 vs missiles Norman kite or Roman legionnaire shield covers from front and sides and can cover another person 1d6 dam 12lb -1 MV
Siege +2 +4 vs missiles for castle assaults uses both hands to move can cover two others 1d6 damag 20lb -3 MV

Quality
also changes value, time to make and scarcity. Cheap inferior or uncared for old armour with -2 on AC score available at a discount and is common. Some suits recycled fro many other suits.

Crafters skill could improve or decrease +/- 1 AC and or MV score
Metal could improve or decrease +/- 1 Copper or inferior bronze or iron
Magic could improve more

Some armour could be ablative and lose a point every hit

Guns and high tech armour
Low tech armour is half vs any gun
Plastic polymer armour common in riot suits half weight and halves movement mods
Powered armour usually no mass penalty and may enhance MV score and ENC
High tech ballistic armour works at full vs guns
Very high tech energy weapons might ignore all low tech armour
Very high tech armour and force fields resist energy weapons at full
Some possible resistances vs specific energy types like reflec or mirror armour
Ablative armour vs energy attacks available or spray on ablat
Some high tech armour poorer vs low tech by as much as -4

Wetsuit +1 4lbBallistic cloth  Shirt +0 +4 vs guns Ablative (loses 1point defence every hit till zerp) 1kg
Ballistic padded cloth suit +2 2kg Flack Jacket AC +2 but +4vs guns
Polymer ballistic studded plastic riot armour +3 6KG
Heavy riot plastic plate +8  only +4vs guns includes gasmask 15kg -3MV
Ballistic polymer and titanium ceramic plate +8 includes gasmask 20kg -4MV

Reflec anti laser suit +4 vs laser 2kg (or laser directed electro stunner or plasma beam)
Ablat anti laser suit +4 vs laser 2kg (or laser directed electro stunner or plasma beam)Fire proof suit +4 vs fire 2kg 2kg
Retroreflec as standard reflec suit but but +6 vs laser and roll d10 1=reflects back hitting shooter 2=hits near shooter or roll to hit enemy nearest ally 3-8 nothing 9 ground strike blast of shrapnel or smoke near suit wearer 10 hit on suit wearers ally. Some also act as hologram field projector creating effective stealth mode or pretend to be someone else

Spray on anti laser ablative foam +4 vs laser (1 minute to set) one can cover one suit 2kg -1mv 
Spray on fire ablative foam +4 vs fire(1 minute to set) one can cover one suit 2kg -1mv 
Spray on kinetic ablative foam +2 vs melee or guns (1 minute to set) one can cover one suit 2kg -1mv
Radiation absorbing version available but must be safely disposed of.

Monocyrstal chain +5 ballistic mesh armour 8kg -1MVThermodynamic polymer armour +4 +8vs energy and charges batteries and keeps cool or warm 12kg -1MV
Reflec space marine plate +8 everything 20kg -3MV
light powered infantry marine +10 vs everything includes gasmask 200lb
medium infantry +12 vs everything, spacesuit armour  350lb+4MVheavy jump marine +14 everything, drops from orbit, heavily armed 1t+20MV Jump 40MV and many have sustained flu pack or discarded re-entry pack for planet fall and extreme gravity and radiation and temperature

Encumberance
Can do by pounds or just estimate or just use amount of MV modifier from armour type

No ENC up to STR in lb no mods usual street clothes and a hand weapon
Medeum ENC up to STRx2 lb -1MV light armour and weapons
Heavy ENC up to STRx5 lb -2MV 1/2 swim and athletic skills, heavier weapons and armour
Very Heavy ENC up to STRx10 -3MV 1/2 swim skill roll to not sink and all athletic NWP skill rolls and DEX saves, no DEX bonus on AC
Over ENC max of STRx20 -6MV sink like a stone and fail almost any test or DEX roll

Notes
It is a nice start and needs to be play tested a bit.

Rogues could benefit from this too possibly automatically hitting a choice location. I'm usually happy to estimate movement and encumbrance classes. I just increase when they are loaded with loot then need to flee are tired and if they sink like stones in the briny deep

Alt dice roll methods

d40 use a d4 for first digit, ten for second
d60 use a d6 for first digit, ten for second
d80 use a d8 for first digit, ten for second
d120 use a d12 for first digit, ten for second
d200 use a d20 for first digit, ten for second


d30 a d6/2 for first digit (half a d6), ten for second
d50 a d10/2 for first digit (half a d10), ten for second

Anyone seen these used much?
I know DCC does some stuff like this alot
this might give me some new options for my table book projects