Carcosa Instant Adventure Generator

[ritt]

Disclaimer: This idea of an "Instant adventure generator" is not original to me. I saw something like this before... I just can't for the life of me remember where. Probably some OSR blog.

Use: Roll a d4, a d6, the two d10s, a d12, and a d20. All at the same time. If you have of those funky-yet-geometrically-beautiful d16s roll that mo-fo too.

OUR HEROES MEET... (d4)

1) On a battlefield
2) In a bar.
3) At a palace or grand temple.
4) In prison, slavery, or a death camp.

THERE THEY MEET A PATRON, WHO IS... (d6)

1) A Merchant.
2) A wizard.
3) A cult leader.
4) A tyrant.
5) A slave, mutant, prostitute, leper, or other outcast.
6) An old friend or lover.

WHO SPEAKS TO THEM OF... ("Tens" d10)

1) Rebellion
2) Theft
3) Siege
4) Kidnapping
5) War
6) Plague
7) A terrible new (Or re-discovered) weapon
8) Brain-washing or mind-control
9) Assassination
10) A rampaging monster

POSSIBLY CAUSED BY...(d8)

1) Lovecraftian beings (Deep ones, elder things, etc.)
2) Mutants
3) A wizard
4) A Cult
5) An enemy nation or city-state
6) Cannibals
7) A rebellious general
8) A mad scientist

SO OUR HEROES MUST TRAVEL TO... (d20)

1) A dead city
2) The jungle
3) Serpent-men ruins
4) Inside the dreams of a dying god
5) Our modern Earth
6) Deep into cannibal territory
7) Far underground
8) A still-inhabited serpent-man city
9) Hell
10) An enemy nation or city-state
11) Onboard an airship
12) An infamous prison or death camp
13) A fortified keep or military base
14) A wizard's tower
15) The sewers
16) A massive weapons depot or ammo dump
17) An active war zone
18) The guts of a massive beast
19) A gargantuan land vehicle
20) A space station

AND THERE THEY MUST... (d12)

1) Kill somebody
2) Steal something
3) Abduct somebody
4) Destroy something
5) Frame somebody for something
6) Convince somebody to change sides
7) Play two factions against each other
8) Take part in a game or duel
9) Rescue somebody
10) Escort somebody somewhere
11) Unleash a terrible force
12) Discover a secret

IN EXCHANGE, THE PATRON OFFERS OUR HEROES... ("Ones" d10)

1) Gold
2) A magic item
3) Relief from a disease, curse, or impairment
4) Weird knowlege
5) Political favor
6) The chance to fulfill a personal obsession (Sexual, revenge, or something stranger)
7) Space alien tech
8) Forgiveness of a debt or offence
9) A possible way off the world of Carcosa
10) The chance to retire and live a normal life


Optional table: COMPLICATIONS (d16)

1) Our Heroes are being set up
2) The patron plans to kill Our Heroes once they have served his/her purpose
3) An antagonist is a possible PC love interest
4) One of the foes is a PC's old friend or lover
5) The villain has a very dangerous pet
6) The villain is psychotic and will respond to any setback with total overkill
7) Another group of antagonists shows up at the location right after the PCs
8) The patron sent another group before Our Heroes, and they joined the villain's side
9) The villain has a paramour as powerful as he/she is. They are crazy in love.
10) The villains have someone important to Our Heroes as a hostage.
11) A terrible storm will arrive shortly after Our Heroes and trap everyone at the location
12) A plague is running through the villain's compound
13) The villain is not fully in control of his/her forces or weapons
14) The villain is just the pawn of a greater power
15) The patron had bad information. Things are not as he/she beilived
16) Roll twice

[tkdco2]

Sounds like fun! Here are my results:

Our heroes meet at a grand temple. There they meet a patron who is a merchant, who tells them of a kidnapping possibly caused by mutants. So the heroes must travel inside the dreams of a dying god, and there they must escort the prisoner to safety.Complication: The villain is not fully in control of his forces.

[foxroe]

I love these kinds of things - great for when you're in a creative rut. Here's what I got:

4 meet in prison, slavery, death camp
2 patron is wizard
3 siege
7 caused by rebellious general
19 travel to gargantuan land vehicle
1 kill somebody
7 space alien tech
11 terrible storm traps heros at location

And here's the quick write-up:

Characters begin play at a slave auction... and they're the slaves. A well-to-do Orange Wizard/Sorcerer (picture Ming the Merciless), after negotiating with the auctioneer privately, purchases the PC's from the slaver. He has no use for long-term slaves (he is very powerful); instead he presses the group into service as lackeys (they have instant decapitation slave collars on).

A disgruntled former associate of the wizard (the "general" of his ape-man "army") has rebelled and successfully laid seige to the wizard's fortress and kidnapped his most beloved (a well equiped sex-bot - but the players don't know that). After the devestating seige, the general and his small group retreated to the desert and are hiding out in an enourmous, ancient insect carapace (actually a giant, now defunct, mobile insect-cyborg city of the Space Aliens).

The wizard fears that the general will kill his beloved if he directly confronts the traitor, so the players are tasked with traveling to the carapace-city, killing the general, and retrieving the wizard's paramour. As payment, characters will be allowed to keep (most) of the treasure they acquire, and will be granted their freedom.

Unfortunately, as soon as the characters arrive at the location, a massive sand storm forces them to remain for a few days constantly evading the general's ape-men patrols while exploring the city searching for the missing lover.