d100 - Wilderness Fauna

As part of my Preparation for a new Wilderness Stocking Resource (an Overland version of my Dungeon Stocking – Expanded) I’ve identified a few potential d100 Tables that I would like to add to the pile. Although I have plenty of tables concerning Trees, Flora, and even Fruit/Berries, I noticed that the ones that I have made in the past for Wildlife are generally pretty specific (Fantastic Fish, Remarkable Birds, etc.) I wanted to something a little more generally applicable: A kind of Outdoor Companion to my Dungeon Fauna table.

So here are a hundred ideas to add some more Critters to those Wildernesses. I don’t view these strictly as Encounters per se: More akin to a bit of decoration or embellishment when portraying an area as we Journey through it. These can serve as a source of small vignettes, just to make those places feel a little more alive. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they won’t sometimes spur choices or interaction by more inquisitive Players, or even potentially serve as some entries to sprinkle in a Hunting or Regional Rumor Table. I have some more fully-fledged ideas for Hunting/Foraging in my Forest Farragoes.

d100 - Dungeon Fauna

Dungeon Rooms and Corridors are often rife with Monsters and horrible Beasts, but what other smaller creatures might be flourishing in those depths? Here’s a d100 Table with some Dungeon Fauna to hopefully breathe a little detail into the various vermin and other (mostly harmless!) Denizens that dwell down there. As with it’s companion Table (Dungeon Flora) these are largely intended to provide a little bit of embellishment and not necessarily trigger those full fledged “Encounter Procedures.” So should you need to dress up an otherwise “Empty” room with a bit of life, some of these little critters might just do the trick.

d100 - Dodgy Dogs & Wholesome Hounds

In my many years of running these games, several peculiar patterns have emerged. One is a certain fondness some Players seem to demonstrate for acquiring “Pets.” Whether it’s the Ranger with their loyal Animal Companion, a Paladin's peerless Mount, the Witch with their fantastic Familiar, or even the well-trained “key-retrieving” Rodent, some Players just can’t seem to get enough of obtaining a mini-menagerie to accompany them on their Adventures.

Like Horses and Mules, I tend to like to make these Animals Memorable, and by far one of the most frequent of these are Canines. Dangling the prospect of Dogs in front of Players nearly always gets a taker, and some more canny ones even like to acquire them in advance of Adventure (they even show up in some Hireling Generators like this one). So, in order to have an appropriately interesting Kennel to cull from, I decided to put together a table of Hundred Hounds to ensure that I had plenty of inspiration for a distinguishing feature or so.

At some point down the road, I might go into more detail with how I handle these Pets in my games. For Dogs, it’s usually a question of Training (Watchdog, Hunting, Tracking, War, Service, Herding/Harrying, and Work types are all some options that have come up before). These tend to dictate some of the capabilities an acquired canine might possess or be able to learn via Downtime gold expenditure and Time with an Animal Trainer Specialist. Much like how I handle Henchmen/Hirelings, they aren’t automatons to be ordered about generally, and I’m not terribly fond of them turning into just another series of Combat Rolls either.

But this can wait for another time, for now hopefully this list of 100 Compelling Canines will at least provide some inspiration for making those Mutts more Memorable in your games:

d100 - Marvelous Mules & Distinctive Donkeys

Appearing on most Equipment Lists, the Trusty Mule sometimes stoically accompanies our Adventures into the strangest of places. Helping them haul their gear and buoy those hopes for retrieving those glittering hoards. Just as with my prior table on Horses, I do prefer to give these precious Pack Animals a little more attention than just a perfunctory price of thirty gold pieces

So, should you find yourself needing some additional Equine Embellishments: here are a Hundred potential Traits for these brave beasts of burden (though I’m sure some of the Names/Entries on the prior table above might apply as well). I know we’ve certainly had some memorable Mules at my tables over the years.

d100 - Fantastical Fishes & Spectacular Seafood

Happy Friday! Here’s another table for sprucing some of the water-bound animals your players might encounter or seek out during their travels. Akin to my generator for Remarkable Birds, this kind of set dressing and these in-world “Common Names” can sometimes add a little bit of fun or interesting detail to the Wilderness Foraging, Catch-monger Stalls, or even the occasional Wave-Crawl. One column might also be useful for quick descriptors of seafood dishes the players might deign to dine upon.

I’ve also included a handy Perchance Generator below to speed up generation of these aquatic critters.

Remarkable Bird Generator

Happy Friday!

Here’s another Random Table/Generator, this one is for creating Remarkable Birds. This one is similar to the Herb & Plant Generator, with a way to create some roughly convincing names and potentially a few interesting features for our feathered friends.

I’m very fond of sprinkling a little bit of set dressing into my Wildernesses via some interesting flora and fauna, and sometimes it can be a handy way to communicate changes in terrain, biome, and regions. As a very casual birder, these creatures have always captured my interest. They can be useful in seasoning other senses as well, through birdsong/sounds.

If you’d like to view some sample output, or prefer digital tools, here is an online generator I threw together for debugging:

Let me know how it works out for you! I hope you'll consider spicing up your skies and trees with a few of these atypical avians from time to time!