photo courtesy: disoculated @ flickr
I am going to try piloting a new weekly feature here at The Iron Tavern. There is always room for more random tables in games. They are handy for on the fly ideas at the table or even while prepping ahead of time and just needing a “kick” to get you thinking.
With that in mind, I plan on posting a new random table every Thursday for the next 4 to 6 weeks. These tables will contain 20 entries and the subject matter will typically have something to do with the fantasy genre. I have several ideas for tables already, but if you think of something you would like to see, feel free to add a comment here or on G+.
After the 4 to 6 weeks I will take a look back at the feedback these posts have received through either comments here, on G+, or twitter and a look at how the posts do traffic wise. If things look positive I will continue the random table posts. If things were only so-so, we’ll call it a simple experiment and I will still have had the exercise of brainstorming some random tables. Always good for the creativity, even as an exercise!
To kick off this random table experiment, we start with dungeon smells! 20 possible smells your hero’s might experience as they make their way through otherwise empty dungeon corridors!
Random Dungeon Odors
| Roll (d20) | Odor |
| 1 | faint sulfur |
| 2 | rotting trash |
| 3 | hint of spoiled milk |
| 4 | musty with a hint of mold |
| 5 | tangy, earthy |
| 6 | strong rat feces |
| 7 | faint incense |
| 8 | overpowering mildew |
| 9 | pungent ammonia |
| 10 | trace of a bat guano |
| 11 | hint of a flower aroma |
| 12 | lingering scent of body odor |
| 13 | stale urine |
| 14 | decaying meat |
| 15 | smoky smell from past burnt torches |
| 16 | wet animal fur |
| 17 | overly sweet smell |
| 18 | lingering smell of rotten fruit |
| 19 | strong vanilla |
| 20 | moldy straw |
Awesome table!
Thanks!
A Good table, never thought I would need it but that will go in my table folder.
I like how Larry Moore suggested over on G+ to expand this table to include much more than just Dungeon Odors – things like NPCs, items, and more!
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Nice table!
It reminds me of the list from the 1979 Dungeon Masters Guide appendix.
Under Dungeon Dressing it had an odors table as follows:
01-03 acrid smell
04-05 chlorine smell
06-39 dank mouldy smell
40-49 earthy smell
50-57 manure smell
58-61 metallic smell
62-65 ozone smell
66-70 putrid smell
71-75 rotting vegetation smell
76-77 salty; wet smell
78-82 smoky smell
83-89 stale, fetid smell
90-95 sulphurous smell
96-00 urine smell
Wow! I had not looked at that list prior to creating mine, though I figured there must be some table out there that also did odors. I must have channeled that one from my youth!
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