Over at Spirit of the Blank, Mike Olson posts about an RPG.net thread featuring a FATE triangle – a very elegant way to use FUDGE dice for a random table.

The creator of the FATE triangle explains it much better than I could. Have a read on the rpg.net thread here. Get your own fillable PDF to make your own FATE traingles here.

The thread on rpg.net features discussion of using this as a slick setting generator. For example, if you have three controlling powers called The Church, The Intelligentsia, and The Free Thinkers, results could show to current balance of power with the most common result that all three groups are about equal.

Another use for it would require several charts featuring two for character generation. Basically, have a chart represent an NPC chart. NPC magic has the attributes INT (mage), WIS (priest), CHA (psionicist). NPC mundane has the attributes STR (Warrior), DEX (rogue) and CON (Warrior). The three corners would have 17 for the primary stat, but weak in the other two. Thus, to generate an NPC, decide if he/she will be magical or mundane. Roll on both charts and you have stats. Other tables would have equipment packs, spell/power lists and the like. With ten tables, you could have a fairly extensive NPC generator.

I had a three-way table that produced possibilities of Psionic, Wizard, and Clerical magic powers in terms of levels. The idea was that in a newly visited world, what forms of 2e magic were present and at what levels. If it was a high-magic world with some clerics and no psionicists, the entry would read wizards to 20th level, clerics to 10th level. Since psionicists weren’t mentioned, they wouldn’t exist.

Unfortunately, I do not have adobe acrobat installed at home (I use Foxit Reader and SumatraPDF instead) and the table was lost. I can’t seem to remember to print the result with a PDF printer instead of save a copy of the PDF results. But those are my personal problems…

I think it makes a new and interesting type of random generator table. What non-FATE use can you come up with?

It is a music generator. To be more precise, it is a minuet generator.

The code on this page is based on the a game purported to have been created by Mozart used to create a minuet. It adds more features like a score generator and a midi file. Although you can play the results on the webpage, a good midi patch opens the possibility to expand into string instruments and beyond.

Its usefulness isn’t limited to just playing music. Use the aforementioned score generator, add some 18th century script, print it on yellowed paper and you have a good prop. You could use the plot of The Purloined Letter, but change the letter to a mythical Mozart’s Lost Score.

Take a listen to some of the compositions. It will sound better than you think.

Here the link to the random generator.

Saying only that the creature should resemble an armadillo…

Capreotetra, or Shadow Protector
This creature is large (at least twice the size of a human).
They live in arctic regions.
They will typically be found alone, or in a group (or cluster) of two or three.
The Capreotetra looks like a wooden carving of an armadillo.
They’re a type of Animate (see below).
They have human-like intelligence.
Magnetic: The creature is magnetic. Metal items (including armour) will be dragged towards it. In the case of weapons, this may cause the creature significant harm.
Natural Armour: The creature’s hide is so tough that it’s treated as armour. This doesn’t stop the creature having actual armour as well, if appropriate.
Immunity to Poison: The creature is totally immune to poison.

Triealian, or Ancient Warrior
This creature is roughly the same size as a human.
They live underground. They travel through the earth like a fish through water or a bird through the air.
A typical group, or cluster, consists of 1-6 creatures.
The Triealian looks like an armadillo, but fiery and demonic.
They’re a type of Spirit (see below).
They have only animal-like intelligence.
Immune to Physical Harm: The Spirit is immune to non-magical harm (for example from normal weapons).
Greater True Sight: The creature is totally immune to magical attacks based on illusions or fear.

Atlanvore, or Folk-o’-the-Isles
This creature is roughly the same size as a human.
They live in the sea.
A typical group, or den, consists of 1-6 creatures.
The Atlanvore looks like a dice which has grown into the shape of an armadillo.
They’re a type of Folk (see below).
They have human-like intelligence.
Amphibious: The creature can breathe both water and air (or in the case of Animates, their mechanisms are waterproof).
Swallow whole (lesser): The creature has a chance of swallowing any enemy which is roughly half its size or smaller. The victim will eventually die. They can’t attempt to break free – they can only be saved if the creature dies. The creature will dissolve armour first, and only then start to damage the character. The creature’s stomach doesn’t dissolve metal. It will never swallow characters with metal armour (or Animates made of metal).
Resistant to Poison: The creature is less effected by poison than a normal creature of its type would be.
Paralysis: The creature’s attack involves a particular kind of poison which may cause paralysis, until the poison is removed or a natural or magical antidote can be applied.

Properly, the web enhancement is called Mahasarpa and it’s available as a web enhancement from WOTC here. Please bear with the misspelling.

THinking about Masharpa (from WOTC) and India flavored articles from old Dragon magazines.

Then came across Inkwell Ideas’ generators for city names: http://bit.ly/6H6lYC and http://bit.ly/4BvC2z about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Then thought about adding an area with India-like flavor for BFRPG setting. Would use Anti-Paladin Games format of one-page descriptions. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Of course, when creating a new setting, I start with the language so that I know what to call things. Most of the time, it’s English. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

This time, I want something Sanskrit-ish. I turn to my favorite tool, Yould, which I helped document. http://bit.ly/7PvMfM about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Firing up Yould, I realize that I prefer transliterated texts to work up a few ideas. You see, Yould requires texts to “train” the generator about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

In a perfect would, I would use documents written in Sanskrit and generate from there (Yould is UTF-8, works with anything) about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

But I am looking for ‘good enough’ because I do not want to get bogged down in my linguist OCD issues. (Yes, I love languages) about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Not finding any larger transliterated texts that I could use easily, I take a readily available English text and use google translate about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Google Translate provides “romanization” of the English to Hindi translation of my long passage. I use the romanization to train yould. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

After some work, yould has a masharpa engine I can use to make Sanskrit-ish words. Decision: generate 100 words and choose the best ones? about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Or create a name generator similar to the ones I saw on Inkwell Ideas. I decide to create a name generator similar to the Chinese City one. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

I generate small words to correspond to same concepts used (directions, geologic features, pleasant adjectives, colors,etc) and expand list about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Final Generator has Five Colums with 20 entries per column. Roll D6 twice to choose which colums. Roll D20 to find entry. Viola! about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Final Generator produces names with the flavors I want, as well as provide 100 vocabulary woods for the setting. Will post on sycarion soon about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck

Example results: Vanataane, Lahekan, Prekham, Rushaim, Apharuen, Pahrahta, Itashaya. 38 minutes ago from TweetDeck

Life is good, I feel like I can make some one page writeups of various areas. 38 minutes ago from TweetDeck