Another one bites the dust...

Once again another blogger is shutting up shop: Austrodavicus, aka Dave (good name) of There's Dungeons Down Under. And because I hate to see things disappear from the blogoverse, here is his post on random books.

Good luck Dave!

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A Random Table and an Update
Part 4 is taking longer to write than I expected (who would've thought there'd be so much criticism of the OSR). It looks like it may even have to be in two parts. So in the meantime, here's a random table I whipped up as a filler:

Quick and Dirty Random Book Finder

Roll one of each dice type and read the results in the order below.

Item found (1d4)

1. Tome
2. Scroll
3. Sheaf of parchments
4. 1d4+1 volumes

The writing is (1d6)

1. None, blank pages (either invisible ink or ignore all other dice)
2. The finder’s native language
3. A known language
4. An unknown language
5. Some sort of code
6. Undecipherable Writing

The item is (1d8)

1. Of no value or interest whatsoever
2. A good read, but of no value
3. Interesting and helpful, but of no monetary value
4. Worth a small amount to a collector
5. Will fetch a decent price
6. Worth lots, easy to sell
7. Rare and incredibly valuable
8. Dangerous to possess

Other features (1d10)

1. Nothing outstanding
2. Illustrated
3. Decorative borders
4. Tooled-leather cover/case
5. Creepy-looking handwriting
6. Illuminated calligraphy
7. Includes what appears to be a treasure map
8. Dried, pressed flowers
9. Appears to be written in blood
10. Written in gold ink and encrusted with tiny precious stones

Subject matter is (1d12)

1. Fictional
2. Historical
3. Myths and Legends
4. Theological
5. Cultural
6. Metaphysical
7. Scientific
8. Geographical
9. Astronomical
10. A bestiary
11. Artistic
12. Magical, add 10 to the d20 roll

Effects of reading the item (1d20)

1 – 10. Nothing unusual
11. Reader is confused by what has been read
12. Reader absolutely refuses to give up the book
13. Reader develops an obsession with the subject, becomes a collector
14. Reader has an overwhelming urge to destroy the book
15. Reader hears a strange unearthly music
16. Reader goes into a trance for 6 turns, awakes with no memory of what happened
17. Reader has a prophetic dream next time they sleep
18. Reader receives a mild curse or affliction
19. Reader receives the effects of a Bless spell for 6 turns, one time only
20. Contains 1d6 spells

Optional: Author (1d30 – roll 1d4 times and arrange to taste)

1. Var
2. Ing
3. Gav
4. Char
5. Pyp
6. Zis
7. Ux
8. Ney
9. Gon
10. Loy
11. Haar
12. Bog
13. Tain
14. Ket
15. Arv
16. Xan
17. Dreb
18. Jyr
19. Een
20. Wos
21. Ika
22. Foag
23. Wan
24. Liat
25. Qaa
26. Meg
27. Yiss
28. Naaba
29. Ros
30. Oss

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And I once again pledge to never nuke my blog.

The Rusty Battle Axe's Dungeoneer's Bookshelf

My Dungeoneer's Bookshelf

Here is my annotated dungeoneer's bookshelf. I have not included items that are otherwise useful to classic fantasy RPG dungeon-based adventuring: GM/DM/CK/Ref guides, monster collections, campaign setting materials, and adventure modules. I have also not included those items only available as PDFs. The items below are listed in publication order, with the oldest being listed first.

Dungeoneer's Survival Guide (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) by Doug Niles (1986): The Dungeoneer's Survivival Guide and its companion volume, the Wilderness Survival Guide, are considered by many to be classics. DSG has a section for players and a section for DMs, each a little over 60 pages. As a GM/DM/CK/Ref, I have found the player section to be more helpful in terms of providing in-game guidance to things like rope use, mining, moving in water, and variations in underground combat. There is a lot of good stuff in this section. I think that the DM section is marred by the presence of a sample underground world, "The Lands of Deepearth." It takes up a significant amount of space and I don't find it particularly helpful.
Dungeon Builder's Guidebook (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) by Bruce Cordell (1998): Not a bad buy as a used book for a couple of bucks, but this 2E book pales in comparison to its sister volume, the ever useful World Builder's Guide. It is primarily a guide for constructing dungeons, with the ability to generate random features at each point along the way. There is a diversity of dungeon types, including underwater dungeons, aerial dungeons, and interdimensional dungeons. It's not horrible, but it lacks substance and seems a bit fluffy to me.

Dungeons by Alderac Entertainment Group (2002): A 3E supplement. Not much here, except for a few mildly interesting puzzle ideas. This is only for "dungeoneer completists." The stereotypical 3E mix of prestige classes, feats, spells, monsters and vague DM ideas, all gathered around the dungeon theme.

Dungeoncraft (Legends & Lairs, d20) (2003): Part of the highly-esteemed "Legends & Lairs" 3E supplements from Fantasy Flight Games. This book contains the usual 3E mix of prestige classes, feats, spells and monsters. However, the second half of the book--covering dungeon crafting--is a gold mine for the GM/DM/CK/Ref building and running a dungeon adventure/campaign. The two companion volumes--Traps & Treachery I & II--are also pretty good.

Dungeonscape: An Essential Guide to Dungeon Adventuring (Dungeons & Dragons d20) (2007): I would say that this book is not too bad, were it not for the fact that the best content is also found in the D&D 3.5E DMG. I have found the companion volume, Cityscape, to be more useful. A decent collection of traps give this book some value.

Engineering Dungeons by Robert Doyel (2008): A very business-like accessory for Castles & Crusades. This is useful for just about any RPG using underground space. The heart of this book is a no-frills random dungeon generator. There is less variety here than in the Dungeon Builder's Guidebook, but there is more attention to detail. It is the detail and the text that makes this book valuable even if you are not generating a random dungeon.

As I get into our current Castles & Crusades homebrew campaign, Isles of Emmon, I find myself paging through these books for ideas. My own dungeoneer's canon starts with two books: AD&D DMG (Gygax) and the AD&D 2E Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide/Dungeon Master's Guide/Rules Supplement (Jaquays). To these I would add two books from my dungeoneer's bookshelf: AD&D Dungeoneer's Survival Guide (Niles) & Dungeoncraft (Legends & Lairs, D20). Finally, when I need help with the nuts and bolts, I use Engineering Dungeons as my go-to dungeon generator.

Anything missing from this list? Is there anything that you have found helpful?

Random Blog Post Topic Generators from The Rusty Battle Axe

As I think these were fun and useful posts from the Rusty Battle Axe (who will be missed) I thought I would preserve and share them here for all. 



The Original!


D30 Random Blog Topic Table
1. My Favorite Color of Dice
2. Most Unlikely, But True, TPK
3. Least Favorite Magic Item
4. Which Monster Has the Best Sense of Humor?
5. Retro-Clones: Are They OSR?
6. Random Table of Found Meals in the Dungeon
7. Dungeon Geology
8. Why I Don't Like __________
9. Flaming Oil as a Weapon: Yes or No?
10. Darwin Award for Player Characters: Your Best Self-Destructive PC
11. Do Elves Fart?
12. Does Your Campaign Setting Have a Magnetic Field?
13. The Original AD&D 1e Bard
14. Clowns As Monsters
15. Lions, Tigers and Bears
16. Three New Magic Items
17. Clothes and Style for Player Characters
18. The Best Names for Taverns, Pubs, Inns and Bars
19. Fudging Dice Rolls as DM: Yes, No, or Depends
20. Spells with Loopholes
21. Names For Coinage
22. Three Actual Historic/Geographic Settings for Campaigning
23. New Monster
24. Best Music Before a Gaming Session
25. Snacks: Salty, Sweet or Healthy?
26. What Were They Thinking?
27. Names for Swords
28. Five Things an Adventurer Should Never Be Without
29. Oops
30. Roll Twice and Use Both Topics in One Post


Son of Random Blog Post Topic Generator

1. You're doing it wrong!*
2. Now THAT Was Inappropriate
3. The Biggest ______ Ever
4. Put Some Water On It
5. After That...Silence
6. And Here Is What You Missed
7. And When The Saving Throw Failed…
8. Bad Dice Day
9. That’s Not How I Imagined It
10. Ewww…What Is that Smell?
11. And That’s the Last Time I Ever __________
12. Should Have Checked For Traps
13. Don’t Taunt the Monster
14. Banned From Appendix N!!
15. Maybe I Should Have Stayed Home
16. When _______ Attack(s)
17. Well, That Didn’t Work
18. And It Sounds Like _______
19. Duh
20. Missed It By That Much

*Thanks, Gene



Table 1: Roll d10
1-2 Roll on Table 2 then on Table 4
3-4 Roll on Table 3 then on Table 4
5-9 Roll on Table 2, then on Table 3, then on Table 4
10- Roll on Table 4

Table 2-Roll d12
1.    The
2.    A
3.    One
4.    Two
5.    Three
6.    Four
7.    Five
8.    Six
9.    Seven
10.    Eight
11.    Nine
12.    Ten

Table 3-Roll d100
1.    Alabaster
2.    Amiable
3.    Anemic
4.    Apelike
5.    Arcane
6.    Bad
7.    Badass
8.    Beautiful
9.    Best
10.    Bizarro
11.    Black
12.    Blue
13.    Certain
14.    Cheap
15.    Circular
16.    Clever
17.    Dark
18.    Dastardly
19.    Dead
20.    Difficult
21.    Dirty
22.    Divine
23.    Dorky
24.    Draconic
25.    Dry
26.    Elastic
27.    Exciting
28.    Explosive
29.    Fast
30.    Fastest
31.    Favorite
32.    Flashy
33.    Flying
34.    Funny
35.    Gnarly
36.    Golden
37.    Gooey
38.    Gray
39.    Green
40.    Groovy
41.    Horrible
42.    Hostile
43.    Humane
44.    Humorous
45.    Immovable
46.    Interesting
47.    Lazy
48.    Least Favorite
49.    Living
50.    Loud
51.    Major
52.    Massive
53.    Meta
54.    Mighty
55.    Minor
56.    Miserly
57.    Multi-Faceted
58.    Mundane
59.    Neutral
60.    New
61.    Nice
62.    Old
63.    Oldest
64.    Orange
65.    Overlooked
66.    Paleomorphic
67.    Pedantic
68.    Perverted
69.    Pissy
70.    Poor
71.    Popular
72.    Purple
73.    Red
74.    Rich
75.    Rude
76.    Sad
77.    Scary
78.    Secret
79.    Shocking
80.    Skimpy
81.    Slow
82.    Sparkly
83.    Stupendous
84.    Stupid
85.    Sure
86.    Sweet
87.    Tight
88.    Timid
89.    Tiny
90.    Ugly
91.    Unpleasant
92.    Valuable
93.    White
94.    Wicked
95.    Wiggliest
96.    Wimpy
97.    Wordy
98.    Worst
99.    Worthless
100.    Yellow

Table 4: Roll d100
1.    Aberrations
2.    Actions
3.    Adventures
4.    Ants
5.    Armor
6.    Artifacts
7.    Artwork
8.    Authors
9.    Bargains
10.    Beans
11.    Beverages
12.    Books
13.    Campaigns
14.    Castles
15.    Characters
16.    Cities
17.    Classes
18.    Clerics
19.    Concepts
20.    Concerns
21.    Covers
22.    Cowards
23.    Crackers
24.    Creatures
25.    Deities
26.    Demons
27.    Dice
28.    Dice Rolls
29.    Doors
30.    Dragons
31.    Dungeons
32.    Dwarves
33.    Editions
34.    Elementals
35.    Elves
36.    Encounters
37.    Equipment
38.    Events
39.    Fey
40.    Fighters
41.    Freebies
42.    Giants
43.    GMs
44.    Gnomes
45.    Guilds
46.    Halflings
47.    Heroes
48.    Humans
49.    Ideas
50.    Inflictions
51.    Information
52.    Issues
53.    Items
54.    Kobolds
55.    Maces
56.    Magic Items
57.    Maps
58.    Modules
59.    Monsters
60.    Mounts
61.    News
62.    Odors
63.    Orcs
64.    Planes
65.    Players
66.    Poisons
67.    Problems
68.    Products
69.    Puns
70.    Races
71.    Rangers
72.    Relics
73.    Rings
74.    Rogues
75.    Rooms
76.    Ruins
77.    Rulebooks
78.    Rules
79.    Saving Throws
80.    Secrets
81.    Sessions
82.    Settings
83.    Snacks
84.    Spells
85.    Strategies
86.    Supplements
87.    Tables
88.    Taverns
89.    Techniques
90.    Thieves
91.    Tools
92.    Trolls
93.    Undead
94.    Vampires
95.    Victims
96.    Villains
97.    Wands
98.    Weapons
99.    Wimps
100.    Wizards