Geeky OD&D Random Generation & Maths Spreadsheet

[SirKazum]

Since I shared my 3E spreadsheet in the 3.x forum, lemme share with you guys what I've done with OD&D in my spare time.

Link to the download page

The first tab is a revised set of tables for random encounters. That's meant to re-organize the monsters in the Monsters & Treasure book, revising the tables from Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, so they make more sense. It's meant for playing with the 1974 rules (the three brown books), but slightly improved. I guess there may not be that much point to sticking to the original rules (as opposed to playing AD&D or later) if you're going to "improve" them, but whatever, I just felt like rehashing the tables for the fun of it.

The second tab is a random terrain generator, meant for "hex-crawl" style adventures as described in the Underworld & Wilderness Adventures book. I made it because the book sets up a whole hex-crawl campaign scenario but doesn't give us tools to play that out in practice! I gave it a try on Wilderness Mapper, and the results are here. Not the most beautiful world map out there, but it's not too nonsensical, I guess.

The third and fourth tabs join the information from the first two tabs (terrain distribution and creature distribution for each terrain) to estimate the distribution of species in an OD&D world. The actual results are in "Demographics Analysis". Sure, it assumes my own custom random encounter tables and terrain generation, so take that with a grain of salt... but I think it gives a pretty good basis for estimating how common or rare each species is.

[Jay R]

Very nice.

... but I think it gives a pretty good basis for estimating how common or rare each species is.

Well, how common or rare they are in the wilderness. The underground has a very different distribution.

[SirKazum]

Very nice.



Well, how common or rare they are in the wilderness. The underground has a very different distribution.

Good point. I kinda ignored the underground tables, as I was focused on hex-crawl campaigns when I made that spreadsheet, but yeah, you're right.

And thanks for the feedback! I somehow didn't catch this reply from my subscriptions page

[Jay R]

It's still worthwhile information. The underground is a totally different eco-system. They should be considered separately.