Minimalist Magic Item table

I've spent a lot of time trying to finish this table. Probably too much time, honestly. It’s one of those things that works exactly as I wanted once it’s done, but just by looking at it, you can’t really see the amount of effort I put in. This is my Dark Fantasy Magic Items in minimalist form (although I think that book is still worth a read at $1.49; it has some additional stuff). 

After polishing it quite a bit, I am almost satisfied with the result.

The idea is this: anyone can create a table with 1,000 magical items (a single d1000 table or d10 versus d100 etc). Since you’ll never use more than a few dozen (maybe not even that many) in a campaign, you’ll never really know the true value of the table. If the results don’t make sense to you, you’ll just think you got unlucky when rolling.

What I wanted was a table that could be easily judged by anyone at a glance. For example, you can easy see how common is a magical dagger compare to a magic ring or rope.

I could also have a table meant purely for inspiration, with a completely abstract and open format, where you combine an effect with an item, no direct relation between the two. The problem is when the effects often don’t fit the items very well, so you end up with armor that deals extra damage or axes that make you move faster, etc. 

I had the impression this was the case in Shadow of the Demon Lord.

Or, ideally, I'd have a big list of common, uncommon, rare, legendary magic items... with sub-tables and elaborate descriptions, maybe prices too. I think this is what 5e does, maybe AD&D too. But it wouldn't be really "minimalist", would it? Anyway, I want to fit mine in a page or two.

The table below boils down to about 10 categories of objects and 20 categories of effects. Since the objects are divided in practice, we end up with more than a thousand possible combinations of effects and items. The difference is that I tried to make it very clear which effects fit best with which objects, so that most of the items you generate using the instructions will actually make sense, and "common" magic items will be, well, actually common. In fact, I toned don't some of the more fantastical and looney tunes effects (e.g., portable hole) to fit my favorite genres of fantasy (low fantasy, dark fantasy).

To illustrate the tables, I included a few items as examples at the end of the post.

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Magic Items

The most common magic items are listed below with their usual effects. You can replace the effects (or alter them, if you roll 1-4) using the effects table, below. It is recommended you do that when you roll an odd number in the first d20, at least until you need more variety.

 

1–2. Apparel. A piece of clothing. Sometimes it only affects an specific part of the body. Examples [1d8]: 1 amulet (+1 to all saves), 2 belt (your Strength becomes 18 or gets a +3 bonus, whichever is better), 3 boots (+10’ movement, i.e., walk 25% faster), 4 bracers (like belt), 5 cloak (+1 AC and saves), 6 gloves (+4 to manual tasks such as picking locks, pockets, etc.), 7 helmet (+4 vs. mind effects), 8 GM's choice.

3–4. Armor or shield. +1 AC. Roll 1d4 for type: 1 light, 2 medium, 3 heavy, 4 shield.

5–6. Potion. Restores 1d6+1 hit points.

7–8. Ring. Rings can do almost anything. Roll on the effects table.

9–10. Scroll. Contains a common random spell, anyone can cast. Roll 2d6, keep the lower die, for its level.

11–12. Tool. A magic tool that resembles an ordinary object but is supernaturally more efficient. Examples: Roll 1d6: 1 rope (you can command it to climb walls, tie itself, etc.), 2 lantern (burns without fuel for up to 10 hours on command), 3 bag (weighs one unit but holds 10 units without changing size or weight), 4 key (once a day, it can open any ordinary lock), 5 tinderbox (creates flame on command like a strong modern lighter), 6 waterskin (creates water on command, up to a gallon a day).

13–14. Wand / rod / staff. Cast one spell (see Scroll, above). Roll for maximum charges (wand 1d6, rod 2d6, staff 3d6). Casting spends charges equal to the spell's level; regain one-third of maximum (round up) at dawn.

15–16. Weapon. +1 to attack and damage. Ammunition comes in a bundle of 3d6 pieces, each expending its magic on a hit. Weapon type: 1 axe, 2 spear, 3 hammer/mace, 4 bow or crossbow, 5 ammunition, 6 polearm. See below for size if needed.

17–18. Sword. +1 to attack and damage. Roll for size if needed: 1 dagger (1d4), 2–3 medium (1d6), 4–5 long (1d8), 6 two-handed (1d10).

19–20. Special. Either roll 1d20 on the Effects table, then invent an unusual object to carry it (19) or roll for the object, then give it a remarkable or combined effect (20).

 

 

Magic Item Effects (d20)

Some effects fit some items better. Entries 1-4 can fit almost anything (if you don’t have an obvious effect, a roll of 1-3 might require you to roll twice); 5-6 are ideal for weapons; 7 (spells) are better left for scroll and wands, although magic swords can sometimes cast spells; 8-15 are mostly passive defensive and they can work well for armor or potions or apparel; 16-17 are more “mental” and better suited to helmets, necklaces and similar; 18 and 19 are rare and are only an easy fit for scrolls (summoning) and big apparel or amulets (transformation). 20 is for all items.

If the effect does not fit the item, decide what to do, randomly or otherwise.

E.g.: 1d6: 1-2 be creative and make it fit or allow it to be weird, 3-4 roll again, 5-6 fall back to the ordinary effect.

 

1. Cursed. The item carries a curse that may manifest at the worst possible time.
2. Temporary. The item becomes mundane after being used 2d6 times.
3. Powerful. The item is unusually strong. For a numeric bonus, roll 1d20: 1–10 the effect is +2, 11–16 +3, 17–19 +4, 20 +5. Similarly, a d6 becomes 2d6 to 5d6, and a 50% reduction becomes 1d20 × 5% (minimum 60%).
4. Conjuring. The item seems to return or appear from out of nowhere, as the owner conjures it with a word or gesture. Alternatively, it is very easily concealed, foldable or very light. If it’s a thrown weapon, it returns to your hand instead.
5. Elemental attack. Deals an extra 1d6 damage of one type. Roll 1d8: 1 acid, 2 cold, 3 fire, 4 lightning, 5 necrotic, 6 poison, 7 psychic, 8 radiant.
6. Hatred. Deals an extra 1d6 damage against one type of creature. Roll 1d12: 1 aberration, 2 beast, 3 celestial, 4 construct, 5 dragon, 6 elemental, 7 fey, 8 fiend, 9 giant, 10 humanoid, 11 monstrosity, 12 undead.
7. Spells. Cast one type of spell. Roll 2d6 and keep the lower die for the spell's level, the higher die for maximum charges. Casting spends charges equal to the spell's level; regain one-third of maximum (round up) at dawn. Alternatively, simplify "magic missile, three charges" to something like "cast magic missile three times a day" when desired. Best left to rings, wands, staves, and scrolls.
8. Protection from element. Reduces incoming damage of one type by 50%. See entry 5 for type.
9. Protection from creatures. Reduces damage or attacks from one type of creature. See entry 6 for type.
10. Protection (saving throws). +1 to all saving throws.
11. Defense. +1 to Armor Class.
12. Augmentation. Raises one ability score by +3, or sets it to a fixed value (18), whichever is better. The stat affected is usually physical and adequate to the item in question. If necessary, roll 1d6: 1 Strength, 2 Dexterity, 3 Constitution, 4 Intelligence, 5 Wisdom, 6 Charisma.
13. Resilience. 50% resistance to a hazard or condition. Roll 1d8: 1 poison, 2 fear, 3 charm, 4 sleep, 5 exhaustion, 6 disease, 7 petrification, 8 an environmental hazard (hunger, thirst, drowning, suffocation).
14. Movement. Move faster or in new ways. Roll 1d8: 1 fly, 2 climb any surface, 3 swim, 4 burrow, 5 walk on water, 6 ignore difficult terrain, 7 leap great distances, 8 slip free of grapples, shackles, and cages.
15. Misdirection. Disguise yourself, your movement, or your actions. Roll 1d6: 1 invisibility, 2 silence (move without sound), 3 impersonate someone, 4 create illusions, 5 leave no traces, 6 pass as another kind of creature.
16. Perception. A supernatural sense. "Keen" versions of ordinary senses grant advantage. Roll 1d8: 1 darkvision, 2 keen hearing, 3 keen smell, 4 blindsight, 5 detect invisible, 6 see auras or magic, 7 detect lies, 8 truesight.
17. Communication. Understand or speak across barriers. Roll 1d8: 1 all humanoid languages, 2 all spoken languages, 3 all written languages, 4 one exotic tongue (celestial, infernal, draconic, sylvan), 5 speak with animals, 6 speak with plants, 7 telepathy, 8 understand any language you hear.
18. Summoning. Call or create a creature to serve you. It looks friendly and possibly loyal but is not enslaved. Roll 1d6 for HD, 1d6 for number of creatures (limit total to 10 HD), and see entry 6 for creature type.
19. Transformation. Turn into a creature, usually an animal. Roll 1d12: 1 insect or spider, 2 rat, 3 owl, 4 snake, 5 wolf, 6 fish, 7 cat or tiger, 8 ape, 9 bear, 10 hawk or eagle, 11 boar, 12 a monster (see entry 6 for type).
20. Special. Roll twice and combine, invent something unexpected, or make the item especially noteworthy with multiple functions.

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Examples:

- Cloak: grants flight.

- Heavy armor +1 AC.

- Potion of cold resistance.

- Scroll holding a 2nd-level spell and a 3rd-level spell with 5 charges (this is a special result; I'd probably change this to a single 5th level spell, or replace it by two separate scrolls)

- Spear +1, +1d6 lightning damage.

- Two-handed sword +1 (1d10).

So far, these are cool if a bit ordinary. I haven't changed a thing. Let's try a few more:

- Helm that allows the wearer to see magical auras.

- Light armor that raises Dexterity by +3 (or sets it to 18) [I could change this, but since its is light armor, I think the Dex boost makes sense].

- Potion of healing.

- Belt of Strenght.

- Scroll of Levitate

- Shield that reduces damage from fiends by 50%.

I didn't even need to re-roll anything. Last pass, with some die rolls:

- 19, 6, 11 - Now this requires some input. I'd say it is a holy symbol that makes you a monster slayer (+1d6 damage to monsters) while you carry it. Maybe a sigil, tabard, etc.

- Level 1 scroll.

- 6, 2, 13 - We could stop at 6 and make it a healing potion, or roll on the second table and make a potion with 2d6 uses that protects you from fear.

- 8, 13, 5 - A ring of protection from disease.

- 16, 6, 17*, 11*, 14*, 6, 12 - A "mace of communication" sounds funny but doesn't quite work for me at first, so I re-rolled three more times (roll with asterisks were discarded) until I got a mace that causes additional 1d6 damage to undead. I could have stopped at a +1 AC weapon, come to think of it.

- Ring of Constitution.

As you can see, no "Legendary" status items, these would require rolling more 20s. But almost all the results are perfectly usable with little effort. I'll probably tinker a bit more with it before I finish my Old School Minimalist PDF (if I ever do), but at least I think I've found the right path here. Or almost...

Did I miss any obvious cool item or effect?

Reconsidering random encounters (again)

I'm reconsidering D&D random encounters... again.

OSE (B/X) says this about the chances of random encounters:

Clear, grasslands: 1-in-6.

Barren lands, hills, mountains, woods: 2-in-6.

Desert, jungle, swamp: 3-in-6.

The idea that mountains and deserts should have lots of encounters feels both unrealistic and unnecessary. 

Forests probably deserve more frequent encounters, but honestly, we could just equalize encounter rates across all terrains without much loss. You’d still end up with more fights in mountains and forests anyway, simply because travel is slower there. 

Again, from OSE:

Some types of terrain modify the speed at which characters can travel:

Broken lands, desert, forest, hills: 33% slower.

Jungle, mountains, swamp: 50% slower.

Maintained roads: 50% faster.

Plains might have fewer beasts, sure—but they tend to have more humans, so the total number of encounters could stay about the same.

Here is one alternative: 2-in-6 chances for every terrain. If you are in terrain that could fall under two categories (forested mountains, a river in a swamp, a settlement in the desert), a 1 means you roll on the first table, a 2 means you roll on the second table.

What else?

Do we really need different tables for each terrain? It makes some sense, but when I started reading the AD&D tables, I noticed something odd. In alphabetical order, there are no giant ants, badgers, beetles, or beavers listed for mountain terrain. That’s not very precise either. In B/X, there are no undead in forests and no insects in mountains. Is there a reason? This probably deserves some revision.

Rivers are trickier. If you’re in a boat, you’re likely to miss or ignore most fish, and even common alligators or snakes. Most rolls end up feeling wasted. So maybe rivers need their own table too—unless you’re swimming, which isn’t all that common in my experience.

Then there are city encounters, which clearly deserve their own separate treatment - the reasoning is completely different (distance, surprise, reaction, numbers found, etc.). Same goes for the sea. 

In the end, we’re left with intricate encounter tables that don’t always mean much.

Well, anyway, I've been looking for the perfect random encounters and I haven't been able to find them. I fixed some things I disliked in Basic Wilderness Encounters, if you want to check it out. I've also made a small app to quickly check for encounters and weather. But I guess I'll keep looking for ways to improve these procedures.

B/X random encounter/travel generator

So I've made a small dice roller / random encounter/ travel generator for B/X, OSE and other "Basic" games.

Here you go.

This is a tool I wanted to have for my own games; I realized it takes too long to roll during the game. Now I can do most of the work with a click (or a few clicks; see below).

I've tried several solutions, including rolling 1000 (!) encounters for my games, many of which I used with great success - they are in the Basic Wilderness Encounters book.

But I also wanted an automated tool for weather (I often forget to roll/describe it) and encounter checks. The weather checks are just descriptive unless they roll terrible weather. I created them inspired by the reaction table.

This isn't as complete as Basic Wilderness Encounters (which also includes NPC names, number and type of monsters appearing, etc.). It is more agnostic, however; you can combine it with your favorite random encounter table, table of random names, etc.

Here are some fine tools for OSE. I've seen some other tools out there in the format of apps and spreadsheets, but I prefer having one link, that I can "roll" with one click.

And it is very transparent, you can ignore any roll you want, add Charisma to the reaction check, let PCs roll for surprise, etc.

I might fix some stuff if I had similar tools formatted for perchance. I especially wish I had a generator that also gave me the number appearing immediately; the rest is often not as important, because the PCs can sometimes choose to ignore the encounter, for example.

I hope this tool helps you experiment running B/X or OSE encounters as originally written, taking distance, surprise, reaction, etc., into account.

This has LOTS of room for improvement, but it takes work. Anyone can edit it (give me credit if you find it appropriate), and I hope there are other generators out there which we can use, add, remix, etc. 

Please let me know! I'd love to have a good perchance generator for B/X or AD&D encounters that I can incorporate to this one!

Additional reading:

https://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-painful-procedure-of-random.html

GP instead of XP?

This is another crazy D&D idea I've heard while researching for the last post: ditch XP entirely, just pay the GP (for training, carousing or whatever) and you level up.

For example, any fighter that has acquired 2.000 gp can simply "buy" a level. There is no need for XP anymore.

The usual limits apply: only one level per "adventure", and maybe there needs to be some risk involved.

Some possible implications that I like:

- First, you eliminate the entire XP subsystem, thus making the game a bit simpler and ditching things  that take some math like monster XP.

- A level 5 party loses a magic-user they probably have enough funds to hire a new level 5 MU, but it will COST them. This doesn't mean they are getting someone off the street and training him to be a magician, but maybe they are paying someone's debt to their tutor, or money to take care of family while they travel, or passage from a distant land, or bribe to their former employer/patron/etc., or even specialized information on where to find someone experienced and brave enough for your expedition.

- This assumes the new MU is a PC and that the amount paid guarantees at least an honest attempt at loyalty, but the new PC is now part of the group and will share treasure equally. Hiring someone for work that is temporary or less risky would be a lot cheaper. Notice that the money is gone, not in the pockets of the new PC!

- Come to think of it, starting an adventure because you need to pay a debt is very pulpy. Or having someone pay to free you from slavery, etc.

- A rich baron may train one or more sons to become level 2 fighters, but after that they probably need some adventuring. Maybe the investment has only an 50% chance of actually working. Some sons will never become warriors/priests/wizards despite the training! It is a risky investment, but it may buy you loyalty!

- Multi-classing? Nope, now you just pay for training in your new class... but you ALSO get a 50% chance of failure. Not all fighters are meant to become wizards! Maybe its better to hire a new wizard...

- Come to think of it, this would be a cool way of getting retainers (not hirelings).

- This also explains why high-level PCs have followers and titles. They spent much gold and probably are owned many favors.

- Adventurers are no longer assumed to own large amounts of gold; instead, they acquire treasure and spend it. High-level adventurers will still be rich but not necessarily as rich as before. 

- If they have a regular non-adventuring job, maybe they get paid 1% of their "worth" per month or 10% per year. Without adventuring (or a good patron), it would takes years for someone to level up. But if you only need a few additional GP to level up, you could just get a job in the city watch for a short time!

- If that is too harsh, just let semi-retired adventurers to gain a level each year if they have no other business to attend to. This must be combined with ageing rules...

-  Could treasure lost allow you to level up? For example, if you have to let a treasure chest sink to save a damsel in distress. The idea sounds a bit absurd but very pulpy.

It seems to me that it would work very well. But at the same time it hurts our simulationist sensibilities; it feels like getting XP for fighting monsters, for example, makes more sense. Maybe we must keep an alternative method of leveling, such as defeating monsters above your level.

Or maybe the simplest, earliest method is still the best.

In any case, let's finish with a random table!

Where did the money go? 

1. Debts owed to dangerous loan sharks

2. Bribing city officials to erase a criminal record

3. Paying off a bounty quietly to avoid capture

4. Covering apprenticeship fees for magical or martial training

5. Paying a mentor for ongoing instruction

6. Funding room and board during training or travel

7. Purchasing expensive spell components or reagents

8. Repairing or upgrading weapons and armor

9. Securing travel—wagon, ship, teleportation

10. Buying you out of indented servitude

11. Helping a severely ill, homeless or troubled family member

12. Donating to a temple or guild

13. Expensive sacrifice to the character's deity

14. Compensating your former group for a previous commitment

15. Buying a nobility title, citizenship or license to carry weapons and travel freely

16. Settling family debts or obligations back home

17. Covering a party’s group expenses to earn trust

18. Making offerings to spirits, demons, or patrons

19. Hiring informants or spies for local intel

20. Investing in a personal business or long-term goal

Creating and using random encounters

There are several ways to use random encounters. I've tried many, each with its own pros and cons. That’s what we’ll discuss today.

1. 

First, let's start with the traditional method: during the game, you check for an encounter. If there is one, you roll on the random encounter table, then determine number appearing, distance, surprise, reaction, and other details. If often involves page-flipping to even begin describing how many bears the players see (nowadays, most tables say "1d6 bears" instead of "bears", which is the bare minimum IMO).

The advantage is that the game becomes more unpredictable for the GM, which can be fun. For the players, the game gets a feeling of authenticity: they seem the fictional world unfolding WITHOUT much GM input, like if it existed without the GM or players. It feels more "real".

The downside is that rolling each encounter along with all its characteristics can take a long time as it involves half a dozen rolls plus maybe making sense of it all. The fact that the PCs have to wait and do nothing as you roll makes things even worse IMO.

Here is one example from AD&D:

2.

My solution to the traditional method, in order to save time, was creating the encounter tables that contained most of the necessary rolls and also some useful information to minimize page-flipping or consulting other tables (for example, NPCs names or activities).

Notice you can still ask the players to roll a random encounter with similar effects as method 1, and the GM will be equally surprised. My tables use even less input form the GM (for example, the GM doesn't need to come up with a name on the spot, or a reason for the results).

Here is one example from my book:

3.

Method 3 is like method 2... only smaller. You can roll a dozen random encounters beforehand, for example, and ask players to roll 1d12 when they have an encounter.

[You need to replace encounters as they are used, but you can do that between sessions].

The GM will not be as surprised during the game, but the players will still get a bit of that authenticity as they roll the d12.

This also allows the GM to add some details that are pertinent to the campaign beforehand. For example, to decide if brigands would be willing to support or fight the usurper king that sent the PCs on a mission, etc. 

One real example I could have tried is making a d12 table with lots of goblin encounters as the PCs entered goblin territory, but I ended up using method 4 (I simply chose a goblin encounter for the next random encounter).

4.

Method 4 gets rid of some or all of the randomness. You can roll some random encounters and choose your favorites, or you can simply pick the from a table or monster manual (so they are not even "random" anymore).

You can add some of the randomness back by taking the encounters you chose and making a d12 list like method 3. 

In conclusion...

Another way to see this is that, even in a simple game like OD&D or B/X, there are thousands of encounter possibilities - only a few dozens monsters but hundreds of circumstances (reaction, surprise, distance, etc.).

If you add your own twist to an encounter (NPC's names, what they were doing, etc.), you have millions of possibilities.

But when the encounter happens, this must be reduced to ONE scenario. 

This process of reducing a million to one involves die rolls (from the GM or players) and GM input. Players usually only participate in choosing the monster indirectly (by rolling dice or by choosing terrain etc., unless they are tracking a monster or something similar).

So there are three aspects to consider here: randomness, GM's fiat and player participation.

Now I notice this reasoning applies to the entire game: you have a set of almost infinite options (which creatures can the DM include in his setting?) and it eventually must be reduced to one ("six goblins attack!"). 

This process always includes GM's fiat, must include player participation (in order for it to be a game and not a monologue) and may include some randomness.

also, in short:

Maximum prep gives you familiarity, coherence and ease of use, but no surprises/excitement* for the GM.

(*Except for PC's actions, and not even this if you railroad.)

Maximum randomness gives surprises but also incoherence and long pauses.

There is a balance to be found IMO.

Which is not much of a conclusion I guess... but that's what I got for today.

Minimum viable setting

How to make the "minimum viable setting"? 

What I want to do is create something that leaves almost NO work for the GM.

But writing down every detail of the setting is not only nearly impossible but also mostly useless; the GM will only use a fraction of it, and facing a 1000-page book might be fearsome even in PDF format.

One alternative is creating the entire thing randomly as you go - e.g., using appendix B. 

As you can see in the link, I find it a bad idea. You should know where mountains are, and see them from a long distance. The same goes for the sea, major cities, countries, but... what about small villages, etc?

Well, these could be randomly generated. Maybe you start with a more detailed map of your surroundings, but after a few hexes you're in uncharted territory.

When I think of it, I find that this is exactly what my favorite setting, Dark Sun, is missing. You have a good hex map and a setting description that is detailed enough, but it definitely needs its own appendix B (and C!).

Notice that you cannot just use the existing appendices; you must create new ones that take into account the setting's unique ecology, climate and demography.

Once you have these two (big map plus generator of smaller features and encounters), you are almost good to go.

You'd still need a few random tables of relevant details, so you don't need to keep coming up with new ones on the fly. For example:

- Names.

- Special features (i.e., things that make each village memorable; there are good example in Dark Fantasy Places).

- Relation with existing factions.

The third one deserves further explanation. In some settings, there are important conflicts (e.g., Law vs. Chaos, Magic vs. Religion or Technology, Good vs. Evil, Guelphs vs. Ghibellines) that will affect settlements and NPCs. 

Sometimes they are obvious and generalized: all dwarves hate orcs, etc. You don't even need a table for that. But if you have something more nuanced, you could use a table with results like "strong support for the king", "this village is divided between Guelphs and Ghibellines", or "this town hates elves/magicians/knights/etc.". 

As you can see, even without an overarching conflict, these tables can add flavor to otherwise boring villages.

If your setting has dungeons, you probably need those too. Maybe we can reach a similar compromise here: a few big dungeons (or even a megadungeon) written in advance and a few randomly generated dungeons if you find one by accident. 

Suffice to say, I'm not a big fan of dungeons generated with the appendix A. But maybe you could make different tables (with fewer 45º corridors and more coherent layouts) to create something worthwhile.

Other than Dark Sun, here is how some of my favorite settings deal with this stuff:

Carcosa. The setting is incredibly interesting and detailed. Every time I read it, I want to run a campaign (and it might be my next one). Still, I think it is not quite ready for use.

Some villages/castles are too lean and a bit simplistic/boring. You could easily replace most villages with a random generator that gave you not only color, numbers and alignment, but also some distinctive features.

Or just add such a random table or one line to each village: "this village hates sorcerers", "this village loves fighters and centers around an arena", "this village is built underground", etc. [I'm sorry to sell it gain, but: Dark Fantasy Places is PWYW!]

The map is not great either; I find the positioning of mountainous and rivers a little weird and random. Not a big problem but I'm tempted to create my own.

Qelong: I find this a great example of a setting that is both small and complete. It has hex descriptions, coherent random encounters and a satisfying meta-narrative.

Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation: say what you will about 5e, these are both awesome, well made settings, with detailed places, good encounter tables, and clear factions/conflicts.

What they lack is more organization (as described here) and a few additional random tables. Both have HUGE hex maps but very sparse; most hexes are empty.

Fortunately, there are several 3rd-party product detailing additional dungeons, features, etc.

And I must acknowledge that they got the map almost exactly right:

This means everyone knows the coast, and the mountains are obvious from afar, but the inner area is not known by adventures.

In short, maybe that is all you need to start:

- A good, incomplete map, plus some random tables to add villages, ruins, lairs (geography).

- Random encounter tables (ecology).

- Random villages (demography).

- A few factions/conflicts (history).

What else I'm missing?

AD&D DMG cover to cover - Part XI, p. 174-215 (Appendices C, D, E - Random monsters)

We've been reading the original DMG - the ultimate DM book! - but from a B/X and OSR point-of-view.

Check the other parts of this series here.

Today we discuss random monsters!

APPENDIX C: RANDOM MONSTER ENCOUNTERS

This includes extensive tables for random monsters. These are bigger, more detailed, and overall a bit better than the weird B/X / OD&D tables. Whales are not encountered in any kind of "water", but only in "deep water", etc.

"the only monsters which are included are those in MONSTER MANUAL. Two notable exceptions to this are those the mezzodaemon and nycadaemon which are found in the AD&D module D3, VAULT OF THE DROW (TSR Games, Inc.). If you do not have this module, simply ignore results calling for these monsters and roll again." 

A weird choice, but okay; the author found these two creatures important enough to be part of the core.

This section includes encounters in dungeons, outdoors, water, underwater, airborne, astral, ethereal, and also psionic encounters, whatever these are.

I'll admit this looks like it is too much for me. Underwater adventures are maybe 100 times less common than forests, at least in my campaigns.

First, there are random dungeon encounters. I do not think this is a great idea but the tables are detailed enough that they may help you create your own dungeon, with a proper theme and hopefully some coherence. 

There is a big focus on balance here; in theory, players can only find the strongest dangers if they travel deep enough (alike wilderness encounters, where they can suddenly face a couple of dragons). This has indeed some "mythic underworld" vibe, with little regard for naturalism/realism/etc: the deeper you go, the bigger and more numerable the monsters become. You can find a dozen bandits on level 1, but there is 120 of them if you find them on level 10.

You can also find adventurer NPCs, each extremely detailed, including random magic items. It is not clear how - and why - are these tables different from the ones in the appendix P.

The book recommends you prepare several parties/NPCs in advance. Looks like a lot of work, but fortunately we might have some tools like this one to make it automatic.

Underwater encounters are simple enough, but detailed - they are "are divided into those which occur in fresh water and those in salt water (seas and oceans). Each division is further broken down by depth - shallow and deep water encounters". Not much to comment here, and not much use for me as noticed above.

ASTRAL & ETHEREAL ENCOUNTERS are next. These are completely baffling to me. The explanation might be elsewhere; I might have read and forgot about them, or skipped it (probably they are the result of some spell?). The glossary indicates there is an explanation in the PHB, so its my fault for not reading it first. 

After some research, it seems these pertain to a certain spell, so maybe they should be include in that context. Like underwater encounters, I feel these won't be used often.

In any case, these are evocative and very interesting. It makes astral/ethereal travel feel dangerous and exciting.

PSIONIC ENCOUNTERS may happen if PCs are using psionic powers - these apparently can attract demons and other entities, which is sinister. These seem to manifest out of thin air (since the yellow mold doesn't move IIRC), so I'm not sure why the book suggests "Roll until an appropriate encounter occurs, ignoring inappropriate results" for this particular table only.

OUTDOOR RANDOM MONSTER ENCOUNTERS is the meat of the chapter. It has tables and subtables for Inhabited areas, Uninhabited areas, Castles, multiple types of terrain in various climates (artic, subartic, temperate, etc.), plus some setting conditions like "faerie", "Pleistocene" and "Prehistoric".

Well, Pleistocene is part of "Prehistoric", but here it means "Age of Dinosaurs", as indicated by the table. The book adds: "Feel free to devise your own encounter matrix for Jurassic, Triassic, or other period with non-aberrant creatures.". 

Why are there no mountains, hills river or seas in the age of dinosaurs? No idea. Probably it is the other way around: in D&D-land, you'll only find dinosaurs in these places.

Pleistocene conditions are somewhat to Sub-Arctic Conditions, without fantasy creatures such as trolls, etc.

I can IMAGINE the Pleistocene/prehistoric tables could be combined for a pulp/S&S campaign, but then you'd also need a river/sea table without nixies, hobgoblins and such. as written, maybe they are meant to apply to certain "lost world" parts of your settings - despite dinosaurs and mammoths being found in the regular tables too.

Putting everything together looks like a bit of a headache, but hopefully this too can be automated (I am sure there is an online roller somewhere, please let me know in the comments!). This one is based on 2e.

AIRBORNE RANDOM MONSTER ENCOUNTERS is short and sweet: "simply use the appropriate

OUTDOOR RANDOM MONSTER ENCOUNTERS table [...] but an encounter occurs only if the creature indicated is able to fly or is actually flying."

CITY/TOWN ENCOUNTERS are meant for unexplored cities, basically. They seem to happen incredibly often ("every three turns"), probably because you meet people all the time in a city, but many will simply ignore the party. 

Checking that often must be a bit of a hassle in practice; maybe we could just check a few times a day for "memorable" encounters that are likely to approach the party.

Also worth noticing that ordinary people seem to be a small percentage of encounters. I'd assume there are more, but unlikely to make memorable encounters. As written, these tables make cities extremely  dangerous, full of demons, undead, and bandits, maybe even more than the cities of S&S like Lankhmar.

BTW, this is where you can find the infamous "harlot table" that describes encounters with "brazen strumpets or haughty courtesans".

We also get ANOTHER table to generate magic items for NPCs, for reasons I cannot fathom.

APPENDIX D: RANDOM GENERATION OF CREATURES FROM THE LOWER PLANES

This is, basically, a generator of random demons, devils, etc.

I LOVE this chapter. This is a precursor to Teratogenicon and all similar books.

Basically, it makes each creature weird and unique, from head to toe, including stats. Here is one example created by this generator:

Demon #1

---------------------------------------------

Frequency: Uncommon

No. Appearing: 3

Armor Class: 0

Move: 15"

Hit Dice: 9

No. of Attacks: 3

Damage: 3-9 (Mouth), 2-12 (Each Arm), 

Special Attacks: Summon/Gate, Spell-like Abilities, 

Special Defenses: Acid Immunity, Weapon Immunity, Cold Immunity, 

Other Abilities: None

Magic Resistance: 45%

Intelligence: High

Size: L

Psionic Ability: Nil

Strength and To Hit/Damage Bonuses: 18 (00) (+3/+6)

---------------------------------------------

Appearance:

Head: Human-like  / Knobs

Overall Visage: Wrinkled - Seamed

Ears: None

Eye Color: Metallic

Eyes: Huge, Flat; Two-Eyed

Nose (If Necessary): Slits Only

Mouth: Tusked; Tiny

Bipedel Torso: Ape-like

General Characteristics: Short and Broad

Tail: None

Body Odor: Urine

Skin: Leathery/Leprous

Skin Color: Reddish

Back: Normal

Arms: 2Hands: Taloned

Legs and Feet (As Applicable): Suctioned

Pictured by Grok using data above.

This technique is great to keep things fresh and keep players guessing, although all fiends share some traits (e.g., magic resistance).

Teratogenicon extends this reasoning to other creature types: undead, aberrations, monstrosities, etc.

APPENDIX E: ALPHABETICAL MONSTER LISTING

A list of monsters and their stats. Probably based on the Monster Manual. No stats for the mezzodaemon, but more than 20 lines for hydras with varying number of heads.

Overall, these appendixes are good, despite some redundancies, weird choices, and mixing things of dissimilar importance without clear distinction, which seems to be a common trend in the DMG.

NOTE: there is a California Wildfire Relief Bundle on DTRPG. It has lots of Savage Worlds (including Savage Worlds Adventure Edition) and a couple of OSR games. "By This Axe I Hack!" and "There and Hack Again" are the most interesting to me.

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Magic Item inflation in AD&D

Modern D&D is sometimes accused of turning PCs' into "superheroes". 

I have been accused of similar transgressions for daring to add feats to my OSR games.

"Hero, not Superhero", from Matt Finch's primer, is a popular motto. 

Of course, you cannot take it at face value - "superhero" PCs were in Chainmail, even BEFORE D&D (they are roughly equivalent to 8th-level fighters).

Likewise, a 8th-level magic-user can fly, cast fireballs, turn himself and other into frogs, etc. Clerics can raise the dead by this point!

Finch says PCs become Batman, but not Superman (he must be referring to fighters - not even Superman can turn people into frogs or raise the dead. Also, Batman is a superhero. But I digress).

Maybe Iron Man might be a better example.

AD&D PCs, even fighters, become spectacularly powerful due to their equipment.

The problem starts on level one. As @ericbabe noticed, in "Lord of Darkness", a classic AD&D module:

For defeating 12 skeletons and a 5-hp crazy woman the first level party earns:

- a ring of invisibility

- a ring of feather falling

- two maces +1

- 800 gp

I noticed a similar (but less extreme) pattern when running classics module in my own campaign. 

[And OSR adventures seem to follow this trend too - I've noticed in in BFRPG, DCC and LotFP modules].

It is difficult to have a precise measure of a high-level PC's power, since so much depends on which modules you run and how well the players do.

The DMG has some guidelines on creating high-level PCs in Appendix P. The rules are generous, albeit not as generous as the example above. For example, a 2nd level PC has only 20% chance of having a +1 magic weapon, plus 30% chance of magic chain armor.

I would guess reality is much more plentiful for surviving PCs, not only using published modules but also using the random item tables from the same book (the 1e DMG). Gygax himself recommend GMs to limit the number of magic items found, IIRC.

There is an easier way to analyse high-level AD&D PCs, however: using the pre-generated characters from classic modules. There is a great compilation in Dragonsfoot.

Let's look at some examples:

The A series has level 4-6 PCs with +1 or +2 weapons and armor, plus some potions and scrolls. Looks reasonable to me.

In the D series, we have PCs from varied levels (around 7-10). Now each PC has several magic items, usually AT LEAST +2 weapon and +2 armor, and we start to see negative ACs.

In the G series, PCs are around level 10-12. There is a level 14 fighter ("Frush") with 104 HP and -5 AC, and a level 12 cleric with -1 AC. The Level 9 Dwarf Fighter has AC 0, a Dwarven Hammer +3, Ring of Invisibility, Boots of Striding and Springing, among other things.

[There are also a few intelligent swords int here. They allow fighters to cast magic spells.]

These PCs would win against an army of OGRES, and I mean that quite literally: even Frush by himself can easily defeat one hundred of them if only ten can attack at once. 

Now, I have never seem -5 AC in any of my games. That is because, despite using feats, I am not as generous with magic items.

How about other editions?

I think B/X might be slightly better less generous in this regard. You can play with this cool generator to see for yourself. I wont say this is ideal because I think B/X fighters are too weak and you shouldn't nerf them.

I am not sure about others; I remember 4e giving away lots of magic items but in hindsight maybe it is not that different from other editions. 

Old-school players sometimes complain about "HP inflation" which is kinda true, but nobody talks about magic item inflation.

5e has tried to limit magic items in important ways.

This is from Xanathar's (5e):

A party gains one hundred magic items during level 1-20, but most of these are consumables.

While this sounds similar to Appendix P, I think it is likely that some AD&D PCs might get even more using random treasure, and definitely a lot more if they get a few magic items for every dozen skeletons they face (OTOH, if they also get 800 gp, they'll level up quickly...).

One important aspect of 5e is attunement. Some powerful items require a certain "bond" with the user, and you cannot have more than three of those. These include bracers of defense and rings of protection, for example.

On the other hand, 5e PCs have a lot more features than AD&D PCs. There is a some balance there; some of the PCs' powers are intrinsic, other are form items, while in AD&D most special powers come form items (at least for fighters).

I must say I'm not a fan of having that many magic items.

Characters like Conan, Fafhrd or John Carter (Appendix N) are heroic (or even superheroic?) because of their own prowess, not because they carry many magic items.

[One noticeable exception is Moorcock's characters, who do get several].

That's why I prefer feats. And they can be very simple: just give a PC "+1 to swords" instead of a "sword +1", or "+3 block" instead of a "shield +3". Like magic items, feats can be distributed randomly if you want.

In short, even old-school PCs can become superheroes with amazing power. They also have their "builds" and "powers" that they create with magic items. Whether you want these powers to be intrinsic, extrinsic, or both, is up to the DM, who will decide what is best for his style.

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AD&D DMG cover to cover - Part X, p. 169-173 (Appendices A, B - Random dungeons/wilderness)

The project is back after a long hyatus!

We've been reading the original DMG - the ultimate DM book! - but from a B/X and OSR point-of-view.

Check the other parts of this series here.

The meat of the book is finished; now we move on tho the appendices, and these are almost as important as the main text (in fact, there is often no clear reason for why something is in the appendix rather than another chapter).

Today we discuss random dungeons and wilderness!

Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of those; I invite anyone who has more experience with them to share it with us in the comments!

Anyway.

APPENDIX A: RANDOM DUNGEON GENERATION

This part contains brief advice on how to make a dungeon and multiple tables to generate one randomly.

I am not a big fan of random dungeons; I find them nonsensical and often cliched.

I wrote about the subject here.

Last time I need a "dungeon" I took a castle map online and populated the rooms in an interesting, coherent manner - according to a theme (haunted castle) - and I was very satisfied with the results.

Can the Appendix A provide something more flavorful?

I'd have to try them in practice. I never actually did; I remember seeing some examples online, but nothing impressed me. Please let me know about any examples you have!

But let's see those tables.

There are 5 "start areas", which seem too weird and not sufficient. With the exception of number 4 (maybe?), they simply do not resemble any actual building, nor do they give an "mythic underworld" vibe (dungeons always start with stairs and they have lots of stairs - maybe they are "created by a mad mage" stuff).

In the same manner, the tables indicate long corridors and lots of 45º degrees passages.

In short, this produces a very specific type of dungeon, ideal for mapping on a square grid, but not much else. Your result will look like a "vanilla D&D dungeon", but not like a cave, castle, ruin or spaceship.

The tables that fill these rooms are a bit better; basically, they add monsters, treasures and traps. Enough variation to make things interesting.

Appendix I adds more interesting stuff to dungeons. Why not put it closer? No idea. But we'll get there!

(BTW: my own book Dark Fantasy Places has some ideas on these topics).

Curiously, the book indicates that "the random dungeon generation system is easily adaptable to solitary play", which is a play-style that became much more popular in recent years.

In short, maybe a cool mini-game, but doesn't seem to create great dungeons, unless the DM adds a lot of input.

EDIT: as waywardwayfarer note in the comments, there is an app inspired by the appendix A. Try it for yourself to see if this is the kind of game you want: https://www.blogofholding.com/dungeonrobber/

APPENDIX B: RANDOM WILDERNESS TERRAIN

This is similar to dungeon generation, but shorter. The first paragraph explains that:

If a wilderness expedition moves into an area where no detailed map has been prepared in advance, the random terrain determination system below can be utilized with relative ease for a 1 space = 1 mile, or larger, scale. In using it, however, common sense must prevail. For example, if the expedition is in the north country the forest will be pine or possibly scrub, while in tropical regions it will be jungle. Similarly, if a pond is indicated in two successive spaces, the two should be treated as one larger body of water. The Dungeon Master must also feel free to add to the random terrain as he sees fit in order to develop a reasonable configuration. In any event, the DM must draw in rivers, large lakes, seas, oceans, and islands as these features cannot easily be generated by a random method.

I don't think random wilderness is a good idea, for several reasons: first, it often produces incoherent maps. It would also take a HUGE time and effort unless you automate it - even a small area requires hundreds of rolls. In addition, mountains can be seem from many miles away and it'd be absurd for the PCs to suddenly find one.

You'd be better off just drawing your own map in advance without any help - which is FAST and EASY. 

It wrote extensively about this here.

The DMG seems to recognize these limitations and only suggest you use this "where no detailed map has been prepared in advance".

There is only a couple of tables here: terrains and inhabitation. Only 10% of hills (and ZERO percent of mountains) contain forests, which seems weird. The DM probably has too choose those, or he'll get hills with forest in the middle of the desert.

Again, my Dark Fantasy Places has some additional tables that might be useful.

If you use 1 hex = 1 mile, the map seems a bit crowded (one hex out of six has something, from single dwellings to cities of 10,000 people). 

Still, it does a decent job of balancing small hamlets, cities, castles and ruins. This is evocative stuff. Unlike mountains, you COULD conceivable find a small castle/ruins in the woods by accident, and it could be the beginning of a great adventure.

BTW, if you want LOTS of tables about the subject, you can check this post in Knights & Knaves Alehouse. Again, it looks like too much to tackle without automation but it is FULL of cool ideas!

Coming next... RANDOM ENCOUNTERS AND MONSTERS!

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A real encounter with quantum goblins

Here is one experience that might be worth discussing.

I (accidentally?) "quantum ogred" my players this week. I also used some improvising and encounter balancing, two things I usually dislike.

And here is how it happened.

A few weeks before, the PCs had defended a town from goblin attacks. However, when the local lord asked their help to defeat the goblins entirely, the PCs decided the reward was not good enough, so they left.

When they went back, I said "roll a d20 so see how town fared against the goblins". I didn't have a rule for that, but I thought it made sense to ask this question. "Roll a d20 and see what happens" is the kind of vague/free-form rule I usually avoid, but this is what I defaulted too.

They rolled a natural 1.

I decided the town had been burned to the ground, then I remembered this post and decided d100% of the populace had been killed/fled. 

I rolled 89.

Only 11% of the population was left. The city had been razed and sacked.

So the PCs decide to ignore the goblins again and go North, through goblin territory, to find a Tabaxi tribe for their own reasons.

Now, this is LITERALLY goblin territory, and they knew it. Here is the map:

Anyway, when they got to hex 29.20, I rolled a random encounter: an hydra.

And I could (should?) have rolled again, because of the "double dragon" rule.

[This is something I mention in Basic Wilderness Encounters but I didn't invent: when you roll a dragon encounter, roll again ONCE, unless it is a green dragon in the forest, red dragon in the mountains, etc - this is meant to avoid the large number of dragons you find in B/X encounter tables.]

Instead, I suddenly decided the encounter should be with the goblin tribe that attacked the city.

Looking back, this feels a bit like railroading: the PCs had decided they wouldn't fight the goblins. And the goblins didn't appear in the random encounter table.

The thing is, the goblins were in the region. I hadn't assigned a specific hex for them, nor had I added this specific tribe to the encounter table - I had just assumed the PCs would look for them eventually, I'd ask for some tracking rolls, etc.

But I knew the goblins were around there. And I was using goblins from B10: Night's Dark Terror (recommended!), which suggests you "assign" encounters rather than rolling them.

The encounter in B10 had a mounted goblin king and 4 hobgoblins. But the PCs had killed dozens of goblins and are known as "goblin scourge" in the region: this small group just couldn't be that brave (B10 notices the king is ready to flee, IIRC). So I added a goblin encounter (6d10 goblins) on top of that.

It just made sense.

But also, they are level 8 by now (think the usual 4 classes) and most random encounters are just too easy - I needed the extra goblins to make it interesting.

In conclusion... I don't know. 

On one and I hate the idea of forcing the "plot" down the player's throats, or to create "level appropriate" encounters.

OTOH, I didn't stop believing the setting in favor of an expected "plot". They were going through literal goblin territory, after finding out the nearby city (Suykin) had been sacked by goblins. And not all random encounters need to be random? Goblins can plan their own attacks too. I am not sure how "forced" they felt.

And I respected each roll after I asked for them. Natural 1 means the city was defeated. 89% means only 11% were left. 6d10 goblins is the number of goblins in an usual encounter.

Anyway, after they managed to defeat the goblins, I went back to the usual tables. I rolled 12 bugbears. It was uninteresting and felt disconnected to the rest of the game.

I've been playing and running RPGs for 30+ years. Sometimes a game makes me change my beliefs and expectations. This was one of these times, maybe, and I might reconsider how to deal with random encounters in the future.

Well, I guess this is part of the fun of playing RPGS... you're always learning.

The campaign spreadsheet

We used to joke about needing a spreadsheet to run certain games, but, come to think of it, this can work WONDERS for your campaigns - especially if you're playing online, of course.

I'm a bit of an Excel nerd. Not that I know much about it - I just use it for everything, especially to manage my calendar, passwords, goals, new year resolutions, links, and so on.

I have been saving my campaign stuff in text format (see here), plus various PDFs, but I'm certainly using excel (or OpenOffice, etc.) for my next campaign.

The first sheet to consider is a campaign timeline. This it's both a schedule (of future events) and a diary. The diary is basically "set in stone"; the players have access to it (you can have a second column of unknown/secret events to yourself). The schedule is basically a list of things you have planned or rolled in advance: an earthquake on November 16, the Dark Lord is planning an invasion on the October 1st, etc. As the players move closer to the events, they can see some signs and even potentially alter it.

The second sheet to consider is your GM screen. Anything you'd put in your "GM screen": random tables, critical hits, a list of random names, THAC0  tables, etc.

I'd keep random encounters in their own sheet. I've been using my own Random Wilderness Encounters PDF, but come to think of it, it might be useful to be able to edit encounters. Maybe discard some used ones (and roll them again) You could even prepare some encounters in advance, make a d10 table, and replace them as you go.

Then you might have a glossary of sorts: places, people, monsters, and so on. You might list them alphabetically (adding a column to specify "type": location/NPC/ etc) or create different sheets for each.

Characters could have their own sheet too, especially in systems that require math for character building (for example, to figure out skill points for the 2e thief).

You can probably add a sheet of random ideas in the end: links, modules you might want to check, tables you don't use often, and so on.

Now, one might wonder: why not use a .doc or wiki instead?

Well, you can. But spreadsheets may have at least two additional perks.

First, spreadsheets can do math. For example, I can quickly add a formula to know how many HP each PC will have on each level (if I'm playing 5e, for example).

Second, they can roll dice. 

I'm not an expert at all; I know that "=RANDBETWEEN(1,20)" automatically rolls a d20, and so on. You could create an entire line of formulas to make all the six or seven rolls you need for a random encounter in just a click or two (I could have saved so much time!).

Well, this is just a brainstorming post. Unfortunately, I have little actual practice with campaign spreadsheets.

Hopefully, I can just give you my spreadsheet when I start my next campaign. But if there is one like that out there... let me know! It will save me some work!

Random ticking clocks - simplified!

When PCs go back to civilization, roll 1d100. If the result is  lower than the number of days passed since they left, an interesting event might have occurred. If the result is EQUAL than the event happens in the day they arrive! If the result is higher, there is no event for now (but it can happen in a few days...).

If there is an event, roll 1d100 again and check the table below:

1-10. A random important NPC dies. Roll for motive: old age, accident, disease/infection, adventure/travel, battle, assassination/execution.

11-15. A random important NPC is diseased/maimed.

16-20. Extreme weather (heat, cold, storms, floods, drought - according to season and place).

21-22. Mass heresy.

23-24. Natural disaster (earthquake, volcano, tornado, tsunami - according to season and place).

25-26. Ominous cosmic spectacle (comet, eclipse, etc.).

27-30. Famine.

31-33. Fire.

34-37. Plague.

38-42. Important birth or marriage.

43-45. Arrival of an important NPC/creature.

46-49. Rebellion.

50-55. Random encounter with a creature from nearby territory.

56-60. Invasion (roll random encounter, multiply NA by 1d6).

61-52. Internal strife/feud.

63-65. War with nearby community. 

66-67. Foreign invasion.

68-70. Shortage of essential supplies.

71-72. Mass hysteria/paranoia.

73-75. Robbery.

76-77. Exceptionally good harvest.

78-79. Supernatural event.

80-81. Tyranny – draconian laws.

82-83. Anarchy – laws are ignored.

84-86. Inflation.

87-89. Important NPC decides to leave place/function.

90. Meteor strike.

91-100. No event.

Roll 1d6 to measure severity. 1 is mild, 6 means total disaster.

A natural disaster of severity 6 may kill/displace 1d100% of the town's population.

Let me know which other entries I can add to the list!

---

How did we get here?

As if often happens, my first attempt at creating a new house rule ended up being more complex than I'd like.

In response to my last post and questions, I got a couple of good "random disaster" lists that are relevant - one in Oriental Adventures, the other in the RC.

The Rules Cyclopedia lists "Dominion Events" on page 142. It mentions 1d4 events per year, and lists both natural (tornadoes, earthquakes, etc.) and unnatural (rebellion, assassination) ones.

Here is a brief excerpt:

The other source mentioned was Oriental Adventures, which also has a pretty good list. 

My list is a combination of the two, reducing them to the entries is found most interesting. 

Ideally, I'd turn that into 100 entries, each with a bit more detail. Most entries should be mild to avoid wiping up the place every year. OTOH, I want to keep boring/subtle stuff to a minimum.

Please let me know if you have any ideas on how to improve the table!

One thing to notice is that some entries will be notice by the PCs while travelling - comets, earthquakes, etc. So maybe I should roll beforehand.

Well, this will do for now... I'll run a game this week and the clock is ticking!

Anyway, let me know what you think!

Note: some Classic D&D modules and OSR stuff are included in the current setting sale. I definitely recommend checking out Night's Dark Terror if you haven't. I'm tempted to buy Night Below for myself.