The Magic School Campaign, Part 4: 6D10 Tables of Plot Generators

Image from Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis

Like any good Dungeons & Dragons fan worth their salt, I made use of randomly-generated tables at some point in my gaming career.  The most common ones tend to be for encounter and treasure generation, although there's quite a lot for other concepts such as NPC name generation and settlement qualities.  Ideally they cut down on the Dungeon Master's hefty workload, which got me to thinking of generating such tables for a magic school setting.

Below are six such tables.  The first one's for generating rumors and potential plot hooks among the student body, some of which might be true yet not indicative of the full story.  The second table's for esoteric ingredients for potions and possibly spell components.  The third one's a sampling of the interesting quirks and personality traits that might be found amid an assortment of diverse magical traditions.  The fourth and fifth tables are for books the PCs might find while browsing the library, either in the main section open to everyone or the dark, forlorn Restricted Section.  And finally, the sixth table provides ten sample classes one might find being taught at an academy of supernatural learning.

Dice Result	Rumor
1	“The new kid at school’s secretly a prince from a country enmeshed in civil war. He’s hiding his identity so the crown’s enemies won’t find him.”
2	“Last night I saw a ghostly girl walking about in the courtyard outside my window. She looked just like a student who mysteriously vanished on these grounds three years ago!”
3	“There’s been talk in the capital amid the nobles about our school. They view us as a threat and plan to pass a law to shut us down!”
4	“In today’s necromancy class, the spider I was supposed to dissect came to life and skittered into the library!”
5	“Merchants from Angel Island have been delivering a lot of crates to the school. The boxes are sealed with anti-divination rituals. Weird thing is, nobody knows who placed the order.”
6	“At the end of every month, at midnight, the best students receive an invitation to Darktower Hall, a masquerade party held in the Shadow Plane.“
7	“Those fools at the Battle Academy insulted our honor for the last time! We’re gonna trounce them at the next game of fireflicker this weekend!”
8	“Druid-girl over there claims to know how to channel wizardly power into flowers. I’m going to find out her secret one way or the other.”
9	“Professor Vernadsky doesn’t seem himself lately. Could it have anything to do with his recent trip to the Underdark?”
10	“Brent Stonebrewer’s cheating on Lilphaba behind Yamaz’s back!”

Dice Result	Ingredients
1	Troll’s regenerating toenail
2	Pickled worms
3	Cockatrice liver
4	Deep sea salts, no older than 30 days
5	Sheep’s blood, boiled and stirred
6	A strand of hair from a dwarf, kept in chilled temperature
7	Crushed belladonna leaves mixed in water touched by the light of a full moon
8	Dragon’s gallbladder, cut vertically into eighths
9	Rust scrapings from an enchanted weapon
10	Roc’s feather
11	Tears shed of joy from one who has not seen death
12	Iron which has never been touched by sunlight
13	Whale bones infused with necromantic energy
14	Manticore’s heart, freshly preserved
15	The breaths of a hound, transmuted into water
16	The flensed skin of an electric eel
17	Liquid memory
18	Warrior’s finger bone
19	Ectoplasm
20	Raw souls

Dice Result	Mage is…
1	Part of the Forest Flame, a cabal of druids who seek to understand nature via alchemy
2	Actually a spy from a rival academy
3	A tattooed arcanist, his spellbook inscribed on his body
4	Cursed with a mark forbidding her to use her spells for selfish gain
5	Convinced that his power comes from the whispers of an extraplanar serpent-god
6	A refugee from a tyrannical magocracy still being hunted
7	Able to create illusions at will by singing about the subject matter
8	Part of an ascetic sect of wizards, refuses to cast spells except when absolutely necessary
9	Able to speak in a low whisper which can be distinctly heard hundreds of feet away
10	Kobold, unaware of dominant society’s customs and frequently commits cultural faux pas

Dice Result	Book Title (Open Section)
1	An Abridged History of the Elvish Peoples
2	On the Subject of Ethereal Entities
3	The Hellborn: A Study of Tieflings and Magical Aptitude
4	Druidic Cabals: An Outsider’s Perspective
5	The Eight Fundamentals of Magic
6	The Magum Exemplare: A Standard of Living for the Virtuous Spellcaster
7	Witchcraft and Charms: The Understanding of Bound Objects
8	On Reality and Illusions
9	The Care and Feeding of One’s Familiar
10	The Many Marvels of Antigonus III

Dice Result	Book Title (Forbidden Section)
1	Reign of the Blood-Prince
2	The Hordebreaker’s Codex
3	Cold Hands, Dark Hearts: Firsthand Accounts of the Weather Wights’ Atrocities
4	Murmurings of the Sleeping Titan
5	The Hidden School: Teachings of Necromancy
6	Secrets of the Nightmare Kingdoms
7	Eight Names of the Crow
8	Apocalypse of the Knife
9	Origin of the First Sorrow
10	Whispered Poisons

Dice Result	Class
1	Opening the Veil: Introduction to Divination and Illusion
2	Alchemy & Natural Law
3	Amateur Adventurers
4	Broomstick Practice
5	Dueling & Offensive Spellcasting
6	Higher Powers: The Understanding of Granted Magic
7	Cantrips, Orisons, and Folk Magic
8	The Wonderful World of Magical Beasts
9	Bardic Lore, from Sha’irs to Skalds
10	Sorcery