Inspired by Zak's 'fortress generation' mention in his blog-post on 'Platformyness', instead of working up a couple of striga (witches) I needed for my game, I knocked out some random tables to do it.  The idea was to create some tables (everyone loves random tables) that throw some detail on a plain old witch - name suggestions, interesting gear, supernatural quirks, and motivations.  I also think a DM's random tables are a window into the sort of campaign they're running, so they may be amusing as that sort of artifact as well.

They're systemless flavor tables, and you can find them in this shared googledoc.  Give 'em a shot the next time you need a creepy witch, or to spice up a hag or something.

Feedback or suggested additions (either entries or whole tables) welcome.

Lemme give this a whirl:

Frau Ratgrave
Origin: barren
->the woman who would become Frau Ratgrave cursed the gods for the unfruitfullness of her womb; in turn, the gods cursed her with hagdom
Spite: livestock
->the fecundity of domesticated animals enrages the infertile hag
Modus Operendi: harries traveler's on "her road"
->she haunts the road in Weltshire that leads to the big farm market in Darrow
Appearance: gaunt & fat
-->Hmmm.  Frau Ratgrave is a nearly-skeletal hag, save for her belly--which is a bulbous, sagging mass that mocks the full bellies of woman bearing a child
Dress: dark robes
-->to better blend in the the forest
Supernatural Quirks: Her evil eye can cause barrenness (synchronicity!) and she can assume the shape of anyone whose fingernail clippings she's eaten
Vulnerability: mundane plant
-->she's vulnerable to whatever flowers look like Georgia O'Keefe-style flower-vaginas, as these symbolize the reproductive powers of womanhood
Conveyance: Chariot
-->drawn by monstrous unborn fetuses
Implement: Mummified infant
-->done-up like a marionette, perhaps as a means to control some monstrosity
Minion: Giant animal
-->giant, slavering rabbit--pagan symbol of fertility perverted

VERDICT: this table is awesome and I will be adding it to my in-play binder.

Huzzah!  Thanks, Guignol.  Glad you liked it, it was a lot of fun to make (and surprisingly easy).

Quote from: VectorSigma;491710Huzzah!  Thanks, Guignol.  Glad you liked it, it was a lot of fun to make (and surprisingly easy).

Do you mind if I link to it on my blog?  All credit where it is due, of course.

Don't mind at all; with the codicil that, being a googledoc, I may end up adding things as time goes on, of course.

More random tables to share!

This time around, frontier town names in the form of three d100 tables.

http://wampuscountry.blogspot.com/2012/01/frontier-town-name-generator.html

Handy stuff, since I love me some hags . Simply hagalicious.

.....nice. I love random tables so much.

Seriously, there's nothing I can't do with ten minutes of prep time and a bunch of random tables.

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;499787Seriously, there's nothing I can't do with ten minutes of prep time and a bunch of random tables.

Precisely.  Knocking out this set of tables in about half an hour saves me from having to do a campaign map for a good long while.

Quote from: VectorSigma;499793Precisely.  Knocking out this set of tables in about half an hour saves me from having to do a campaign map for a good long while.

A campaign about hag hunters?

Damn, I might steal that idea for my ongoing Warhammer stuff.

Quote from: Rincewind1;499795A campaign about hag hunters?

Damn, I might steal that idea for my ongoing Warhammer stuff.

Hag Hunter should be a career exit from Witch-Hunter.

Quote from: Rincewind1;499795A campaign about hag hunters?

Damn, I might steal that idea for my ongoing Warhammer stuff.

Heh, actually I was referring that time to the 'frontier town name' tables.  Sadly, my players haven't gone after a hag just yet; they're too busy going In Search Of The Unknown.  But the hags will come.

Oh, yes.  The hags will come.

I do have a vast swamplands just north of the main city of the current campaign arena. I was just going to use that for Fimirs and to showcase how shitty the life of a peasant that lived on the swamp in middle ages was,  but I guess it'd also be an excellent "breeding" ground for all sorts of hags.

Latest random table is fantastic names (people and places).  Eight columns of junk, d100 per column.

I'm a little concerned that at this point any random table less than a d100 feels unsatisfying to me.  That's...not good.