Don't get me wrong, a table with twelve or twenty or thirty results is perfectly good. But when I'm writing a random table, I'm not satisfied anymore unless it's got a hundred rows and multiple columns. This is a good and bad thing, depending, of course.
Populating a d100 table takes longer, sure, but in order to do so I find myself reaching into nooks and crannies of the brain I might otherwise not explore. 'Forced creativity'.
Conversely, however, this can sometimes affect the tone of the table - you're less prone to edit yourself, more likely to include a little gonzo maybe. And sometimes 100 results is too many! If I did a "100 businesses in town" table, that would be well and good, but I might roll twenty results for a small town and somehow not get anywhere to eat on the map.
Anyway, I'm putting the finishing touches on a table that generates magic-users. Not stats, just nicknames/kennings, appearance-related gimmicks, and hobbies/goals. Trying to think of a fourth column to throw on there. 100 familiars?
In other news, I have to say the search terms people are using to find Wampus Country are pretty amusing to me. Some of them, you have to wonder whether they were really looking for this site. Here are the top contenders:
wampus country - presumably they're looking for this blog, which is fantastic!
hunting for skunk ape - this one puzzles me, as there's only one 'skunk ape' mention on the site, so any 'Finding Bigfoot' fans who click through are going to be sorely disappointed.
lady on velocipede cartoon - well, we do have one of those.
laugh so hard my head fell off - presumably this leads to a certain coyote.
"transformed into giants" - I still need to do more on the whole giants thing.
fairytale lumberjack - you're in the right place.
beast with three heads - now I'm disappointed I don't have an illustration for our resident three-headed beast!
frontier name generator, frontier town name generator - these two have a lot of search-engine hits. And that post with the table in it is one of the most popular posts on the blog, yet has no comments, which I find interesting. I hope folks are getting use out of these tables.
why ladybug the witch - I know which post this might lead to, but I'm confused as to why anyone would use 'the' in a search engine. ;)
If you're getting use out of one of my tables, please drop me a line or comment!
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| "'Don't forget the sandwiches,' I said, must've done a hundred times. How are we to have a successful adventure without sandwiches? For heaven's sake, Nigel, what kind of hobbit are you anyway? |
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