Collections for HackMaster

The roleplaying game (RPG) of HackMaster has a very handy set of tables for quick non-player character (NPC) generation during the game. In particular, there’s a great little table suggesting various items your NPCs might deign to collect in their spare time. Unfortunately, if you use this table often enough, you can end up with some repetitive themes (“His office is filled with many fine books…” “Another book collector?!”). So, I’ve played around a bit with expanding a couple of these tables. Since I’m unwilling to reproduce copyrighted material, I’m not integrating all of the options into one big table. Instead I’m presenting additional tables that you can use in addition to the original ones.

Obviously you don’t have to roll on these as tables; you could just look through them and pick something you like! Since HackMaster is a fantasy-genre game, these collections are aimed at that genre. Over time I might add more to these tables.

Collections (d20)

1. Myths & legends
2. Furniture
3. Magic items, scrolls, potions
4. People (use your imagination; this could be figurative or literal…)
5. Monsters
6. Celebrity items
7. Magic paraphernalia
8. Items connected with royalty or nobility (signet rings?)
9. Wines from particularly good wineries and/or years
10. Gossip & rumors
11. Pets (common or exotic–see any Hacklopedia of Beasts)
12. Diaries or histories
13. Exotic plants
14. Pottery
15. Clothing
16. Tools (unusual or exceptionally well-made)
17. Styles or items of architecture
18. Items procured on journeys to exotic foreign locales
19. Masks
20. Exotic cloths (e.g., foreign silk died crimson with a rare dye)

Collection Sub-Tables

You might simply prefer to say that someone collects “celebrity items” in general. Or you might want to delineate his collection more specifically. In case you want to get specific, here are sub-tables for some of the above collections. They might also give you ideas for specific items within a larger collection.

Furniture (d3)

1. Made of specific materials, such as teak, oak, maple, granite
2. Particular items, such as rocking chairs or mirrors
3. Styles, such as wicker furniture from a warm locale or elegantly carved furniture from a particular region

Monsters (d3)

1. Trophies (hides, heads, horns, braided manes or tails, clothing made from animal parts)
2. Caged monsters
3. A particular type of monster

Celebrity Items (d6)

1. Autographs
2. Personal items
3. Journals or diaries
4. Articles of clothing
5. Portraits of the collector with the celebrity
6. Bards’ songs that tell tales of celebrity exploits

Magic Paraphernalia (d8)

1. Alchemical equipment
2. Herbs and plants with magical or medicinal properties
3. Spell components of various types
4. Other people’s spell books
5. Academic texts on magic
6. Items reputed to have special properties or connected to superstition (a unicorn’s horn or rabbit’s foot, for example)
7. Spellcaster’s robes, wand, anything that would make the person look like a mage
8. All the paraphernalia and construction that goes into a magical research lab

Clothing (d8)

1. Styles from historical periods
2. Styles from particular regions
3. Styles from foreign countries
4. Certain types of designs
5. Particular articles (such as hats)
6. Made from particular materials (silk, wool, leather)
7. Made by famous designers
8. From theatrical productions (i.e., costumes)

Tools (d4)

1. Carpenter’s tools
2. Jeweler’s tools
3. Surgeon’s/healer’s tools
4. Sculptor’s tools

Items procured on journeys to exotic foreign locales (d10)

1. Exotic food items
2. Exotic beverages (unusual teas, coffees, juices, or liquors)
3. Unique items of clothing
4. Religious artifacts or trappings
5. Cultural or historical artifacts
6. Unusual and attractive household objects (vases, platters, etc.)
7. Medicines or medicinal plants
8. Servants or slaves from foreign lands
9. Magical items or items connected to lore and superstition
10. Furniture