Drop It Like a D6

[A very brief post as I try to generate a small amount of content and keep the blog alive. Seriously, I have my fair share of ideas but not enough time to transcribe them into words.]

So, Z used the cover of [redacted] to make a 2-dimensional multi-use table. I know, this is old news because [redacted] was published in 2008. Still, humor me, because it's a revelation to me as I'm just now coming back to the RPG world.

Essentially, when you roll a die, traditionally you get one random value out of the result: the number on the face of the die. However, when rolling on a finite 2D surface such as a piece of paper (or in Z's case, the cover of a book), the die will land in a particular spot, which itself could have significance. All of a sudden, you have three random values instead of one. There's the face value of the die, but also the relative x and y position (or horizontal and vertical if you're averse to algebra).

This has vast implications. Instead of rolling up something's random hit points, for example, you can roll up its hit points, armor class, and number appearing - all with one roll of a die. Given enough familiarity with interpreting the result, it has the potential for speeding up random rolls immensely.

Traditionally, the most common form of random roll has been the random encounter table: roll to see what creature or NPC the party encounters, if any. However, with the possibilities offered by the die-drop table model, there's a nearly endless supply of things you can come up with because of the multi-dimensional nature of the roll.

I think it might be a fun idea to try and create my own die-drop table. I think I'm going to start with a treasure generator. If you have any ideas of what you might want to see in a die-drop table, maybe comment below and give me brainstorming material!