Random Generators of Things

I'm in the process of trying to teach myself something about Javascript. And I am finding it really hard, a lot harder than I thought it would be. Every time I think I'm starting to come to grips with it, it kicks me in the balls and runs away giggling. And unfortunately, I don't know enough to know what I'm doing wrong.

Anyway, as an exercise in Learning Stuff, I've thrown together these random Generators of Things from various dice tables I've collected from various places over the years.

Demon-slaying after-effects — a visual aid

This demonstrates admirably one of the sorts of special effects I was imagining when I did my table of demon-slaying results.

I have no idea where this scene comes from, but I'm guessing one of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, maybe? Because of the overalls.

Captain! We have to do that thing! To avoid the thing!

Roll 1d10 3 times to find out what you have to do to avert the imminent space-crisis!

1	Quick! We have to...	decouple	the...	plasma	conduit
2		invert		navigation	module
3		polarize		targeting	emmitter
4		depolarize		warp-field	stabilizer
5		deactivate		polaron	array
6		reprogram		life-support	assembly
7		realign		fuel	core
8		reconfigure		sensor	nacelle
9		reinitialize		entertainment	monitor
10		disassemble		databank	limiter

I'm not great at coming up with startrekky jargon; I'm sure you could fill the table with much better stuff.

Lots of eyes, lots of muscles

Inevitably, there comes a time when, convinced that there's something there to find, the whole party all search the same place to make sure that somebody picks up something that everyone else has missed, or all try to open the same stuck door, or pick the same lock, or find the same traps, or whatever. Apart from the fact that it takes up valuable time, and thus increases the chance of being mutilated by some treasure-less wandering monster, it can certainly help swell the party's coffers.

Assuming there really is anything to be found, that is.

Of course you can always throw a die for each individual searcher (I like to use a different coloured d6 for each character so I know who has and hasn't succeeded, just in case they want to keep the news to themselves or something, the sneaky bastards).

However, if you want to skip over all that and get the show on the road, you can always convert all those individual rolls into one combined d100 roll.

The formula for finding the probability from a whole bunch of d6 (or any other die type) is this:

1 - [(chance of NOT showing the desired pips) to the power of (the total number of dice)]

Assuming that you might just want to know the numbers and not have to do a whole lot of tedious maths to find out, here are some I prepared earlier:

Number of d6	Chance of at least one 6 showing on a handful of d6: 1 - [(5/6)^N]	Chance of at least one 1 OR 2 showing on a handful of d6: 1 - [(2/3)^N]
1d6	16.7%	33.3%
2d6	30.6%	55.6%
3d6	42.1%	70.4%
4d6	51.8%	80.2%
5d6	59.8%	86.8%
6d6	66.5%	91.2%
7d6	72.1%	94.1%
8d6	76.7%	96.0%
9d6	80.6%	97.4%
10d6	83.9%	98.2%
11d6	86.5%	98.8%
12d6	88.7%	99.2%
13d6	90.6%	99.4%
14d6	92.2%	99.6%
15d6	93.5%	99.7%
16d6	94.6%	99.8%
17d6	95.4%	99.89%
18d6	96.2%	99.93%
19d6	96.9%	99.95%
20d6	97.4%	99.96%

Fun For All The Family... With Tables!

Demon-slaying is a fun and profitable pass-time that everyone can enjoy. But demons aren't your everyday monster; they shouldn't just fall over and expire when you slay them. So, when you land that killing blow, rattle your d20 and...

What Happens When A Demon Dies?
d20	Result
1	The killing wound bursts into flame which spreads rapidly through the demon's body, incinerating it from the inside out and leaving nothing but greasy ashes and thick, stinking smoke.
2	The demon collapses into a pile of squirming, slimy worms, which rapidly disperse, leaving behind a foetid slime-patch where the demon fell.
3	The demon deflates as thousands of small black beetles pour from the killing wound and scurry away.
4	The demon petrifies instantly into solid granite. A weapon that inflicted the killing blow is momentarily trapped; make an easy STR save to free it (the attempt takes one attack).
5	The demon petrifies instantly into very soft, friable stone that will crumble to the touch.
6	The demon instantly freezes solid, falls over and shatters into a million shards. A weapon that inflicted the killing blow is momentarily trapped; make an easy STR save to keep hold of it as the slain demon falls.
7	The demon transforms into a cloud of tiny, vicious birds that immediately turn on each other, pecking and slashing until the flock disperses in 1-3 rounds.
8	The demon swells up like a bullfrog, tearing open from the point of the killing wound and spilling its bones and entrails out across the surrounding area. Anyone within 20' must make a CON save to avoid throwing up in their mouth.
9	The demon disappears with a blinding flash and a deafening crack, leaving behind nothing but a small cloud of stinking smoke. Save or be dazzled and deafened for 1d3-1 rounds.
10	The demon implodes, its hide crushing its bones and entrails, until all that is left is a small, leathery, wrinkled ball (about 6" in diameter) smelling strongly of putrescence.
11	The demon explodes, showering everything within 20' in stinking mince.
12	Translucent, ethereal tentacles spring up from the ground and drag the demon down to the abyss, leaving nothing behind but a shadow that slowly dissipates.
13	The demon collapses into a pile of worn terracotta blocks, a couple of inches on a side. If someone wanted to take the time and effort, and had access to mortar and brickworking skills, they could be reassembled into a brick statue of the demon.
14	Thick, stinking, tarry ooze gushes from all of the corpse's orifices. It sticks like treacle (and tastes absolutely disgusting).
15	The demon and everything within 20' is covered with (harmless) electrical arcs for 1-3 rounds, after which it disappears with a flash and a smell of ozone.
16	The demon disappears, leaving behind only an irridescent green pearl about half an inch in diameter. It is subtly unpleasant to look upon or to touch, and leaves a viewer with the distinct impression that it's watching them.
17	The demon putresces and mummifies incredibly rapidly, as if a hundred years of decomposition takes place in a moment, and then falls to the floor, shattering into scraps of hide, bone and dust.
18	The demon's skin sloughs off, then its muscles and entrails fall away, leaving its skeleton standing in the posture it was in at the point of death. If touched, the bones will collapse into dust.
19	The demon, and everything around, it appears to suddenly stretch out to a hundred times its length and then snap back like a rubber band, disappearing with a noise like a bag of custard hitting the footpath, having been dropped from the top of a high tower. Make a WIS save or be severely disoriented for 1d3 rounds.
20	The demon is petrified into a statue of sand; a wind arises and blows it back to the Abyss in 1d3 rounds. Make a DEX save to close your eyes or be temporarily blinded by wind-blown demon-grit.

Essential supplies: Fnord's Super-DeLuxe Adventurer's Kit

Item	Quantity	Weight(kg)
Acid vials (½ litre)	3	1.5
Battle-net	1	3
Bedroll	1	6
Bells, small	6	0.1
Break-lock	1	1
Caltrops (boxes of 100)	3	6
Candles (2 hour)	12	1
Chisel, cold	1	0.5
Chisel, wood	1	0.3
Clothes	1Set	2
Cooking Herbs	1	0.1
Crowbar	1	2
Ear trumpet	1	0.2
Ear-plugs	2	0.01
Eye-patch	1	0.01
Fish-hooks	6	0.1
Flint, steel, tinder	1	0.2
Grapnel	1	1
Handaxe	1	1
Hand-hooks	2	1
Holy Water (1 litre vials)	6	6
Hooded lantern	1	1
Iron rations (per day)	15	7
Leather sheet, 1m x 2m	1	2
Mallet	1	1
Mirror, glass	1	0.2
Mirror, silver	1	0.2
Oil Flasks (1 litre)	6	4
Oilskin poncho	1	2
Pack	1	2
Poles, 10'	10	25
Periscope	1	0.5
Pulley	6	3
Rope, silk, 50m	1	3
Sacks	5	2
Salt	½kg	0.5
Spike, iron	6	1.5
Vellum, 0.5m sq.	3	0.1
Whip-saw, metal	1	0.3
Whip-saw, wood	1	0.3
Wire, silver	5m	1
Wire, steel (No.8)	20m	4
TOTAL WEIGHT:		93.62kg

When I was playing my favourite old character Fnord the Pretty Gosh-Darned Nifty, over time I gradually developed a pretty comprehensive equipment list for him. The whole lot together comes to just under a hundred kilos (about 225 pounds), and being fairly strong he could just stagger along under the weight of it all bundled up, but quite apart from the weight, it made a big bundle and generally I hired bearers and/or mules to carry it.

This doesn't include stuff like armour or weapons, or non-adventuring stuff like his teddy-bear or ukelele. Or his skunk (don't ask, because I don't remember).

When I eventually managed to get my greedy hands on a Portable Hole, things got a lot more straight-forward. Man, those things are incredibly useful.

Every single item on this list saw use, one way or another, many of them frequently.