Free One Page Mini-Setting: Sell-Swords of Mars...

Good Afternoon, All:

For the last few years, I've always told myself that I would write up and submit an entry to the annual One Page Dungeon Contest. This month, I felt appropriately motivated, and finally took the plunge.

Sell-Swords of Mars is a mini-setting intended for Sword & Planet: A Roleplaying Game of Planetary Romance. As you can see, it's a snapshot of a small region of Barsoom, complete with encounter table, reaction table, map and location key. In true Old School deference, this setting is rather "bare bones", with a number of adventure hooks hinted at in the descriptions of each location. I welcome you to check it out and share your feedback with me on its contents.

Enjoy,
Flynn

Random Chart: Quick Barsoomian Name Generator...

Good Afternoon, All:

Here's another random chart, this time to allow for quick Barsoomian Name generation. Barsoom-style games are becoming more and more popular, making a little generator like this one a nice addition for those who are running them, or even for players seeking names appropriate for their characters within that setting.

Using this chart is pretty easy. First, roll 1d6 to determine the format of the name itself. After that, roll on the appropriate table(s) as called for. The Prefix and Suffix table are both d66 tables. Those familiar with this blog already know how to create a d66 roll. For those that aren't, roll two d6s and read them similar to percentile dice. The first d6 represents the tens digit, and the second d6 represents the ones digit. For example, rolling a 2 on the first d6 and a 6 on the second d6 would create a result of 26.

So, by way of demonstration, let's create a Barsoomian Name. To determine the format of the name, I rolled a 3 on my d6. That indicates that the name should be formatted thus: "[Prefix] [Prefix][Suffix]". My three d66 rolls are, in order, 64, 26 and 51. That gives us a Barsoomian name of: Yerst Kantolian. Not bad, not bad. It's definitely not a name you'll see in a bog-standard fantasy game. (Okay, maybe Kantolian might make a good wizard's name, but I digress.)

This table was generated by parsing a list of names from the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and pairing down the resulting list of prefixes and suffixes by frequency and by flavor.

Table: Name Format

d6	Format
1	[Prefix] [Prefix][Suffix]
2	[Prefix] [Prefix][Suffix]
3	[Prefix] [Prefix][Suffix]
4	[Prefix][Suffix]
5	[Prefix][Suffix]
6	[Prefix]

Table: Barsoomian Name Prefix

d66	Prefix
11	Am
12	Banth
13	Carth
14	Dur
15	Flor
16	Gant
21	Haj
22	Ham
23	Il
24	Jad
25	Kand
26	Kant
31	Lan
32	Mat
33	Nast
34	Or
35	Pand
36	Parth
41	Roj
42	Sark
43	Sol
44	Sor
45	Tal
46	Tar
51	Tark
52	Tav
53	Thor
54	Thur
55	Thuv
56	Ul
61	Um
62	Val
63	Vor
64	Xax
65	Yerst
66	Zand

Table: Barsoomian Name Suffix

d66	Suffix
11	a
12	ab
13	ad
14	ah
15	ai
16	aj
21	ak
22	al
23	am
24	an
25	ang
26	ar
31	ark
32	as
33	at
34	ed
35	ek
36	el
41	i
42	ia
43	ion
44	is
45	o
46	ok
51	olian
52	on
53	or
54	oris
55	os
56	u
61	ul
62	um
63	un
64	ur
65	uren
66	us

Enjoy,
Flynn