Since my last post on eliminative progress tables, I've been playing around with some worldbuilding subgames and it feels a bit less chaotic than I would like. This is an attempt to iterate on the same idea but with a bit less predictability.
A leapfrog table involves more entries than the die used to roll it (for instance, 30 entries on a d6 table) where order matters. Use it as so,
- When an entry is rolled, strike it off.
- If landing on a stricken entry, roll again, advancing from the stricken entry (multiple times if necessary)
To add "declining marginal returns," you can regard upper levels of the die you're rolling as null results, e.g. roll 1d8, on 1-6 advance that many entries, on 7-8 nothing happens - such that if the first six entries are already filled up you only have a 57% chance of actually adding something, or whatever.
Tech tree adapted from the most recent edition of a popular 4X (1d10, null result on 9-10)
- pottery
- animal husbandry
- mining
- sailing
- astrology
- irrigation
- writing
- archery
- masonry
- bronzeworking
- wheel
- celestial navigation
- currency
- horseback riding
- ironworking
- shipbuilding
- mathematics
- construction
- engineering
- military tactics
- buttress
- apprenticeship
- stirrups
- machinery
- alchemy
- military engineering
- castles
- steel
- banking
- cartography
- mass production
- printing
- square rigging
- astronomy
- metal casting
- seige tactics
- gunpowder
- industrialization
- scientific theory
- ballistics
- military science
- steam power
- sanitation
- economics
- rifling
- flight
- replaceable parts
- bessemmer steel
- refining
- electricity
- radio
- chemistry
- combustion
- advanced flight
- rocketry
- advanced ballistics
- combined arms
- plastics
- computers
- nuclear fission
- synthetic materials
- telecommunications
- satellites
- guidance systems
- lasers
- composites
- stealth technology
- robotics
- nuclear fusion
- nanotechnology
goop -> ultrahuman evolution table (1d8)
- aging
- sex
- mouth/anus
- mobility
- eyes
- pain
- ability to breathe air
- brain
- sleep
- survival instinct
- live birth
- hair
- walking upright
- grasping
- vocalization
- memory
- empathy
- display of emotions
- reciprocity
- dreams
- sclera
- breastfeeding
- menstruation
- opposable thumbs
- immortal souls
- morality
- maths
- metaphor
- music
- language
- telekinesis
- astral projection
- telepathy
- aura reading
- psychic vampirism
- personal survival through reincarnation
- levitation
- Speech of the Gods
- body-hopping
- conscious control over all physical and mental processes
goop -> anything evolution table (1d20, null result on 16-20)
This can become the ultrahuman evolution table
- aging
- sex
- mouth/anus
- mobility
- eyes
- pain
- ability to breathe air
- brain
- sleep
- survival instinct
- exoskeleton
- flight
- bioluminescence
- pheremones
- venom
- ability to survive in vacuum
- burrowing
- exotic energy source
- can see ghosts
- darkvision
- live birth
- hair
- walking upright
- grasping
- vocalization
- memory
- empathy
- display of emotions
- reciprocity
- dreams
- web-spinning
- fire-breathing
- shapeshifting
- parasitic larvae
- petrification
- magnetic sense
- phase shifting
- antimagic
- explosive
- hallucinogenic
- sclera
- breastfeeding
- menstruation
- opposable thumbs
- immortal souls
- morality
- maths
- metaphor
- music
- language
- telekinesis
- astral projection
- telepathy
- aura reading
- psychic vampirism
- personal survival through reincarnation
- levitation
- Speech of the Gods
- body-hopping
- conscious control over all physical and mental processes
This is really neat. I wonder what the statistics on something like that would be.
ReplyDeleteAnother place it might be useful could be some cataclysmic event preceded by a lot of omens. So the early entries might say something like: "Fresh milk curdles and spoils" and "Birds drop dead out of the sky" and the last 4 entries or so would all just be "The dead rise from their grave to wander the earth eternally."
Or miscasting tables for magic that will eventually consume it's caster.