Play anecdote that illustrates why I love the random tables in The Perilous Wilds so much:

Play anecdote that illustrates why I love the random tables in The Perilous Wilds so much:

The paladin in my group has a vial of pure enchantment magic that he’s demonstrating on a baseball-sized rock. We had already established that contact with this stuff makes inanimate objects come to life and start dancing like something out of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, so the rock is transformed into a living creature. It grows pencil-thin arms and legs, and begins to dance around, looking expectantly toward the paladin for instructions.

The paladin decides he wants to keep it as a pet, and asks me if he can roll it up as a follower. The player rolls for its Instinct and gets a 5 – Lord over others. He then rolls for its Cost and get a 2 – Vengeance.

Now, the party has a tiny, magically animated rock for a pet that will do deliberately cruel things like climb atop the bodies of fallen foes and do a victory dance. It’s sick of being kicked around and mistreated by the world, and now that it has a will of its own, it wants nothing more than to get even with anyone or anything bigger than it, which is pretty much everything.

I don’t think I ever would have come up with a vengeful dancing rock with an inferiority complex if not for the randomizers. They’re always great for shading the world with interesting details.