Weird on the Waves (Review)

For a while now¹, I’ve been dreaming of a maritime campaign, so I jumped on Weird on the Waves a year or so ago. It’s finally out, and it’s OK I guess.

Background

Weird on the Waves started taking pre-orders in 2017 as a LotFP-compatible product. It released in 2020 with generic D&D rules and notes for both “old school” and “new school” styles of play. It is available from Rebecca Chenier’s itch.io page for $5.99 or from her other storefront (?) for $10.99. I don’t know what the difference is, but I got mine from itch.io if there is one.

The Elephant in the Room

Is Rebecca Chenier cancelled? I don’t know man. If she’s a grifter, she seems benign. I did keep an eye out for any of the worst issues of Blood in the Chocolate and didn’t find them here.

Overview

The setting is the Caribbean in 1666, just before the “golden age of piracy”. But something is wrong: ships can travel to the Caribbean, but they can’t leave again. Instead, they find the islands surrounded by a sentient, hateful ocean full of strange and magical islands.

Chapter 1 - The Weird Waves

In addition to the setting pitch and the list of inspirational media, this chapter also explains basic D&D terminology in a way that’s not enough to be useful on its own, but enough that it might not match whichever system you are using. I would have preferred if it just owned OSR-style stats or 5e-compatibility, and didn’t feel the need to explain dice notation again.

This chapter also contains the part of the game that I’m most likely to borrow from: the basic “gameplay loop” of Weird on the Waves. That is the structure of finding a lead and following through and the procedures for sailing (like other games have procedures for exploring a dungeon or hexcrawling).

Chapter 2 - Character Creation and Play

This chapter also suffers from system indecision. It has rules for things that your base game should already have², like swimming, drowning, encumbrance, experience, etc. It has some suggested backgrounds, but without the mechanical heft of full 5e backgrounds, which is probably fine. It does also have rules the base game is unlikely to have, like firearms and a general-purpose “maritime” skill.

Chapter 3 - The Mermaid

When characters die in Weird on the Waves, they can be brought back as a mermaid by the ocean, but without their memories. The mermaids here are suitably weird (we are treated to some of Rebecca’s own art), and the bulk of the class is a d100 random-advancement table. It has details for “New School” and “Old School” games.

Chapter 4 - Goods and Equipment

Maybe someone likes this, but for the most part I don’t care what the cost of a cutlass is, or the range of a blunderbuss compared to a musket, meticulously-researched though I’m sure it is. I appreciate the miscellaneous bonuses that come from ship’s pets, and I like that all the currency conversion rates are as simple as possible.

Rules for disease also end up in this chapter, because medicine is here. Fair enough.

Chapter 5 - Ships and Sea Vessels

Like equipment tables for boats. I would be perfectly fine with four basic ships and then keep the section with perks and customizations, but I assume that some people get a lot out of this.

Chapter 6 - Sailing the Sea

Here is real meat. If Chapter 1 had procedures for “dungeon exploration”, Chapter 6 is the random encounter tables and rules for morale. (It is actually random encounter tables and rules for morale, so that wasn’t a great analogy.)

Chapter 7 - Ship Combat

I’ve read a bunch of ship combat rules, but I’ve never actually run any. This looks simpler than Pathfinder but more helpful than B/X, so that’s promising. Ocean hazards are also in this chapter, and I’m not sure why they’re not in the previous one instead.

Chapter 8 - Ending Combat, Days, and Voyages

Unlike the last section of Chapter 7 (“Ending Combat”), the title of this chapter refers to repairs after combat and also other parts of the sailing procedure that happen at the end of the day (e.g. morale checks) or the end of voyages (e.g. selling treasure).

Chapter 9 - Wave Master Rules

This chapter has a setting overview (“the ocean is magic and hates you”) and details (“the government of Cuba”) and GM advice (“historical accuracy is overrated”). There are also rules for “Wave”, “Weal”, and “Woe” dice, which represent the will of the malevolent sea. Wave dice get added to the GM-side of contested rolls, Weal dice are added to player rolls (like inspiration maybe), and Woe dice are rolled for prompts to make a situation worse whenever a player rolls a natural “1”.

This chapter also has all the random tables, and they seem all right.

Chapter 10 - Adversaries and Monsters

There are three kinds of monster in here: small or mundane animals, NPCs, and weird creatures. I could probably do without stats for “Cat” and “Dog”, especially because the important parts (bonuses for having a ship’s pet) are already elsewhere. I could also do without stats for “Sailor” and “Commoner”, because the base system should already have these, and I wouldn’t have to convert anything.

The weird creatures are one of the best parts of the book though, from a flavor standpoint. We’ve been told before that the sea hates humans and mocks them, but these creatures are actually showing that. The ocean learns that humans need vitamin C to survive, so it makes carnivorous citruses that suck vitamin C. Explorers start littering guns and ammunition, so the ocean induces crabs to become fortresses. It really captures the weirdness and hatred and confusion of the setting.

There are also some named NPCs (mostly historical figures) to serve as rivals, patrons, etc. These are fine and useful.

Chapter 11 - The Horrors of Pig Island

A short adventure, but probably solid. There are only so many ways to do a shipwreck adventure, but this one is cleaned up, with a little bit of Circe, and showcasing some of the atmosphere of the Weird on the Waves setting.

Chapter 12 - Race to Mondo Island

This adventure really showcases the sailing protocols, but doesn’t seem to add much. The PCs have a map, hire a crew, encounter some weird stuff, and hopefully return with the treasure. If nothing else, this is a useful illustration of how to use the tools in the book.

Impressions

• The PDF is not accessible at all. This is, in my opinion, the strongest argument against this book. The text is not searchable, there are no bookmarks, and every page is a flat, lo-res, grayscale image. Ostensibly, this is to prevent piracy (irony noted), but I don’t understand quite how, because people pirate PDFs all the time. This is only slightly alleviated by the inclusion of a hi-res map booklet.
• In what I assume is a result of this decision, the text of some tables is larger than the space allows, leading to crowded, hard-to-read entries like this:
  
• The book is a one-person effort and the limits of that show. For example, it could really use an editing pass to catch all manner of little things (the wrong “its”, “Île/Isle” confusion, etc. In one place, the book refers to a “Weird” die, even though the new types of dice are “Wave”, “Weal”, and “Woe”.) It reminds me of Ynn in that respect: strong concept but lots of loose ends.
• No rules are given for renown, although the text mentions it a few times. It’s not a big deal to improvise, but I remember one of the things I did like about the Pathfinder pirate rules was a subsystem for tracking “infamy”.
• It doesn't need to be 224 pages. A lot of space could have been saved if a single system was picked, or some things were left assumed. But I wouldn’t mind the length so much if the PDF were searchable and indexed.
• The art is a bit of a letdown. Rebecca referred to the book as a “millstone around her neck” in the preface, and I’m glad for her that she finally got it finished (I know the feeling). But somewhere between concept and finished product Rebecca’s own art was replaced with standard-issue public domain art³, and I find it uninspiring. To see what could have been, I have reproduced two pages from a 2019 sample document (left) next to their released counterparts (right).
  
  

Conclusion

Would you like me to review your product? Here’s how to make that happen:

• Write a solid product that blows me away.
• Write a product of any quality that happens to be on top of my pile when I’m in a writing mood.
• Ask me? I don’t know if this will work, nobody’s ever tried.
• Write a product that doesn’t exist, that I already really want to read and make it infuriatingly close to good.

I would say that I could definitely get some use out of this, except for the accessibility issues. If I can’t search it or navigate it, it’s going to be more hindrance than help at the table.

Islands!

Weird on the Waves has a weird island generator, so as is tradition, I gave it a half-dozen spins. It’s got occupants (1d12, 9 entries), shape (1d20), resources (1d8, 6 entries), buried or hidden treasure (1d6), and noteworthy features (1d100, ~30 entries).

Island 1

Occupants: Spanish colonists (60 commoners, 10 sailors, 1 noble)
Shape:
Resources: Coconuts (Provisions)
Buried Treasure: Buried trove (Ivory (0.1 tons, 12000 gp), Fresh water (1 ton, 100 gp))
Noteworthy Feature: The island is cursed, causing all who dwell upon it to slowly be turned into different kinds of fish people. The transformation is slow, causing anyone who stays there longer than a month to develop fishy traits.

Island 2

Occupants: Coconauts (110 coconauts)
Shape:
Resources: Coconuts (Provisions)
Buried Treasure: Sealed crate of textiles (175 gp)
Noteworthy Feature: Site of a cursed item. A random cursed item is hidden somewhere on the island. The item is a valuable treasure, but holds a terrible curse if used or possessed by a character. The exact nature of the cursed item is up to the Wave Master.

Island 3

Occupants: Uninhabited by humans
Shape:
Resources: Island cedar trees (Materials)
Buried Treasure: Buried Trove (Spanish wine (0.2 tons, 300 gp), Livestock (2.1 tons, 75 gp), Clothing (1 ton, 300 gp))
Noteworthy Feature: The island is cursed, causing all who dwell upon it to slowly be turned into different kinds of fish people. The transformation is slow, causing anyone who stays there longer than a month to develop fishy traits.

Island 4

Occupants: Dutch merchants (100 sailors, 2 captains)
Shape:
Resources: Island cedar trees (Materials)
Buried Treasure: Buried Trove (Dyes (0.2 tons, 500 gp), Textiles (0.3 tons, 525 gp), 14 Provisions (0.4 tons, 140 gp), Materials (1 ton, 100 gp), Narcotics (0.5 tons, 1000 gp), Rum (1 ton, 400 gp))
Noteworthy Feature: Within the island is a cave system with 17 chambers, forming a treasure-laden but heavily trapped dungeon.

Island 5

Occupants: Buccaneer camp (13 buccaneers, 1 captain)
Shape:
Resources: Island cedar trees (Materials)
Buried Treasure: Sealed crate of textiles (175 gp)
Noteworthy Feature: An abandoned settlement. Tobacco and sugarcane has been planted, houses and camps built and intact, but completely empty save for a few splashes of blood. Pirates didn’t kill these people, but something did. Setting up a camp here is easy, but encounters are doubled.

Island 6

Occupants: English colonists (50 commoners, 10 sailors, 1 captain)
Shape:
Resources: Sea cave (Hiding place)
Buried Treasure: Cache of Barbados rum (12 barrels, 480 gp)
Noteworthy Feature: An abandoned settlement. Tobacco and sugarcane has been planted, houses and camps built and intact, but completely empty save for a few splashes of blood. Pirates didn’t kill these people, but something did. Setting up a camp here is easy, but encounters are doubled.

Notes

These are pretty good, combining a lot of the best features of other tables I’ve liked. I like that most islands are inhabited, I like that every island has a secret treasure, and I like the little maps. The only thing that feels “off” is the specificity. When it lines up well, the specificity makes the whole thing come together beautifully (Why does Island 4 have two captains? Obviously there are North and South camps, and they are fighting over the extensive treasure caverns.) But then when it doesn’t line up obviously, it can be tough to make it fit (How is the livestock “hidden” on Island 3?). In other places, I wish there was a little more detail, like about the cursed item on Island 2. The "weighting" of some of the tabes feels off slightly, but I can't put my finger on it.

Are any of the islands giant turtles?

No turtles, but one possible island is a fossilized whale that begins to move again when the characters uncover its calcified heart. Same vibes.

---

1 I recently caught up with an old friend and we were talking about D&D. I told him about the nautical campaign I was dreaming and he said, “Ian, you need to do that already. You gave me the same pitch in High School.” Now I’m worried because I don't remember that at all.^back

2 Or not, as you might know if you’d ever looked for LotFP’s drowning rules. This uncertainty goes some way to explaining, if not excusing the bulk.^back

3 Which isn’t to say that this can’t be done well. I quite like the public-domain collages in Johnstone Metzger’s work, and I find that Emmy Allen’s work tends to recontextualize the images enough that they don’t bother me.^back

Black Ships and Bad Hydrodynamics

I was going to make a quick fun game about boats. Treasure Island, The Odyssey, One Piece. I wasn't going to get caught up in the details of how boats work. I told myself this at the outset, and believed it. I was going to borrow liberally from other, nicer rulesets, and not worry about realism. Now I'm writing about boat hydrodynamics.

When Viking explorers found new lands, they were usually about a week's sailing away. More distant lands were reached by following a chain of smaller stops. This is because they could survive for about two weeks at sea, so one week was the point of no return¹. Rather than start with existing historic boats, we can take this type of exploration as our goal, and then work out how best achieve it.

Some Rules

I haven't playtested these, they're just draft rules.

• Every week, the crew² rolls against mishaps. An undercrewed ship rolls with disadvantage.
• An overburdened ship moves at half speed.
• When there are fewer sacks³ of supplies than people, the ship is at half rations. At half rations, all ability checks are rolled at disadvantage. For each additional week at half rations, an additional die is added to the disadvantage (e.g. on two weeks of half rations, an ability check is the worst result of three dice). This assumes some kind of subsistence fishing, scavenging, rationing, etc. This doesn't kill you directly, but you're going to die.

Mishaps

1. 1d4 sacks of supplies lost or spoiled
2. ship damaged - move at half speed (rigging, rudder, etc.)
3. you are lost
4. injury among the crew
5. disease among the crew
6. stowaway found
7. becalmed for 1d6 days
8. ill omen - next mishap check at disadvantage unless the crew makes appropriate supplication

Encounters

Encounters at sea are never by surprise excepting with beasts, and evasion is down to chance (1d4 to evade: on a 1, success, on a 2, success but off-course or lost day).

1. Global Faction
2. Local Faction
3. Foreign Faction
4. Unaffiliated
5. Wild
6. Flotsam or sign

Exploration Sailing

Going back to "islands are a week away", we can interpret this two ways, which I will call the "dense ocean" assumption and the "sparse ocean" assumption. Given the distances and speeds involved, the classical 6-mile hex quickly becomes more hindrance than help, and instead everything is worked out in points and lines. Obviously all these assumptions are different for large ships with large crews, but I don't think those are conducive to the game I'm trying to make here. It's also worth noting that I'm explicitly fitting the geography to the type of game I want to run here, not to any kind of reality.

Visibility

A person can see d km away on a clear day at sea, where:

$$d=\sqrt{13h}$$

and:
d is distance seen (km) and
h is the height above sea level (m).

This means:

• A 2-meter person standing at roughly sea level can see 5 km.
• A person standing atop a 30 m crow's nest can see 20 km.
• In ideal conditions, smoke rises to a mixing height of 518 m, so can be seen from 82 km away.
• A bird flying at 4000 m can see and be seen from 228 km.

The Dense Ocean

On average, there is an island one week's travel in any direction.

This means that each day of exploration, there is a 1-in-7 chance of finding an island. Call it 1-in-8 and be done with it.

The Sparse Ocean

On average, the nearest island is 1 week away.

This means that in a circle of radius one week's travel, there will be an expected two islands (start and destination). Here I will make a series of poor assumptions which allow me to simplify my calculations: Assume that the ship will sail in a straight line each day in one of eight directions, and that it will see everything there is to see in that direction. The area seen in one day is then:

$$A_{\mathit{day}}=\frac{1}{8}\pi {(\frac{1}{7}r)}^2$$

where:
A_day is the area of ocean seen in one day, and
r is the distance traveled in one week.

Then the probability of finding an island in a week is roughly:

$$P_{\mathit{week}}=2\times \frac{7(\frac{1}{8}\ast \pi {(\frac{1}{7}r)}^2)}{\pi r^2}=\frac{1}{28}$$

and the probability of finding an island on any given day is:

$$P_{\mathit{day}}=\frac{1}{7}\times \frac{1}{28}=\frac{1}{196}$$

Exploration sailing is terrible using a sparse ocean.

What about Vikings?

The Draken Harald Hårfagre has a top speed of 14 knots or 25.928 km/hr. If the crew never rests, then the ship could travel 4356 km in a week. If they use birds to find land, then they explore a swath of ocean 4356 km x 2(228) km in one week. The probability of finding an island is then:

$$P_{\mathit{week}}=2\times \frac{2d\times r}{\pi r^2}=2\times \frac{2(228)\times 4356}{\pi {(4356)}^2}=\frac{912}{4356\pi }\approx 0.0666$$

and

$$P_{\mathit{day}}=\frac{1}{7}{P}_{\mathit{week}}\approx 0.01$$

This is about twice as good odds as with worse assumptions, but still doesn't seem great. I'm sure that realistic exploration sailing had any number of other factors going for it and the math here is all wrong, but for my purposes the Dense Ocean seems more fun anyway.

How Much?

Assume a party of 5 people. We'll say that a week's supplies for one person is a sack, and in addition each person has a sack of tools and gear. So our small ship must now carry 20 sacks of weight (5 people, 10 supplies, 5 gear).

Old ships are measured in tonnage⁴, the number of tun-casks the ship could fit. From this random image I found, a tun cask takes four people to carry, so is equivalent to 4 sacks. Therefore our small ship is 5 tons.

How Fast?

An early limitation on ship speed is the "hull speed", where:

$$V_{\mathit{hull}}=1.34\sqrt{L_{\mathit{WL}}}$$

and:
V_hull is the hull speed (knots), and
L_WL is the length of the ship measured at the waterline (ft).
Strictly speaking this isn't a "limitation", but I must stress that we're talking about terrible boats here.

From the tonnage, we can back-calculate the length of the ship using the Builder's Old Measurement:

$$T=\frac{(L_{\mathit{OA}}-\frac{3}{5}b)\times b\times \frac{b}{2}}{94}$$

where:
T is the tonnage (tons burden),
L_OA is the over-all length of the ship (from stem to sternpost, ft), and
b is the beam, or width of the ship (ft)
and also using a random rule-of-thumb found on Wikipedia somewhere:

$$b=\sqrt[3]{L_{\mathit{OA}}^2}+1$$

(L_OA and b in ft.) Finally, we must assume that, for our purposes, the waterline length is equal to the overall length. This isn't a great assumption, but it's not terrible if our boat is built more like a bathtub than a canoe.

With all of this, I wrote a quick ocatve script to generate the following table:

T (tons)	LOA (ft)	Vhull (knots)
1	9.5255	4.1357
2	12.837	4.8011
3	15.294	5.2404
4	17.319	5.5766
5	19.074	5.8523
6	20.639	6.0876
7	22.061	6.2939
8	23.372	6.4782
9	24.593	6.6453
10	25.739	6.7983

At this point, I started to think I might have lost track of where I started, so I stopped. When someone asked "how fast do boats go" on a Discord server, I just pointed them at this table from Labyrinth Lord:

Underdark-Ocean Island Generator

One more in a continuing series.

Where to get it

The Manse

What is it

Six tables, d6-d12, giving approach, material, monster, hazards, treasures, and inhabitants (1-in-6).

Sample Output

Island 1

• Well developed. Tons of range markers, buoys, shark nets and docks. If the island is inhabited, there is a steep dock fee. If the island is uninhabited, then this place is long abandoned.
• Island of bones and insect shells; discarded for centuries as flotsam.
• Dark-Elf Spellcaster. Very powerful, but water burns her like acid.
• Glass Dog. It's lonely, but every time it jumps or licks you it deals 1 damage cause it's made of glass. If you managed to catch it and bring it to the mage's guild you'll get a hefty reward.
• Pearl & Diamond Earring. The matching pair is lost at sea. Worth a few thousand gold.
• Uninhabited

Island 2

• Unnaturally calm. Feeling of dread. Roll a random encounter.
• Island of bones and insect shells; discarded for centuries as flotsam.
• Ogre Zombie, dressed head to toe in very thick armor. There's actually 1d8+1 of them, they're just all identically dressed, so rumors only ever speak of one.
• There is a fairy grove on this island, unsual mushroom and lichen instead of trees and grass. But the fairies still play tricks on you, steal your map, make time pass faster, etc.
• Magic warning sign. If a creature can read any language, then reading this sign forces them to make a morale check to proceed if they aren't in combat or chasing you or something.
• Uninhabited

Island 3

• Filled with dark, spooky seaweed. If you fall overboard, they pull you down and drown you.
• Standard rocky island affair. Mushroom forest and lichen bog; very verdant for a place in the underdark. Elves probably lived here once.
• Dark-Elf Spellcaster. Very powerful, but water burns her like acid.
• Poisonous berries and fruits, tainted fresh water. No chance for resupply.
• Bag of a hundred silver coins. If you spend an exploration turn tapping coins, you have a 1 in 6 chance to find a fake coin that's actually gold underneath a silver paint. About 20 of them are fake.
• Uninhabited

Notes

I like these ones, they're detailed and evocative. They're definitely tied to a setting, and they might be just specific enough that it's weird to re-use one on a second island. I also think that only 1-in-6 islands being inhabited means the inhabitants table doesn't get enough use, similar to the "exotic materials" table on other generators.

---

1 This is what the tour guides of The Draken Harald Hårfagre told me, but I might be misremembering.^back

2 Following from UVG, a "group" check rotates throughout the crew.^back

3 Sacks are another useful abstraction from UVG. A sack is: as much as one person can carry unencumbered; all of a person's prefessional gear; one unconscious human; one unit of trade goods; or enough food, water, and consumables for one person to survive for one week.^back

4 These are tons burden (a volume measurement), as opposed to tons displacement (a weight measurement). As an engineer, it distresses me the number of meanings that "ton" can take, but here it is unavoidable.^back

Misc. Notes

It's been a while, and I don't have any large projects to share, but I'd like to keep up the habit of writing here. So I'm writing up some notes I have lying around.

What's That Island

Another island generator in my growing collection.

Where to get it

The Oddvent Oddpendium

What is it

A pair of d100 tables for "Landmark" and "Twist" (38 entries each).

Sample Output

Island 1

Landmark: Blue Grass
Twist: Crashed Sky-Boat

Island 2

Landmark: Gusts of Wind
Twist: Metal Skeletons

Island 3

Landmark: Lone Mountain
Twist: No Time Passes Here

Island 4

Landmark: Huge Waterfall
Twist: Whispering Wind

Island 5

Landmark: Dense Cacti
Twist: Doomsday Device

Island 6

Landmark: Blue Grass
Twist: Metal Skeletons

Notes

This table uses the same type of terse entries as Chris McDowall's Spark Tables, but is just a little more specific. There is the obligatory "Island is a Turtle" entry, which should have been its own point in these roundups. Some things like "Misty" or "Underwater" aren't exactly "Landmarks", but they're evocative so I'll let it go.

Magic Mouth Mishaps

Currently I'm favoring simpler magic systems, but one thing I liked about the revised Lamentations spellcasting rules was that it made you consider a minimum number of distinct miscasts. I made a table of them for Magic Mouth. I tried to make them sufficiently LotFP-ish, but I'm still not sure if I got the timing of the miscasts right, as I have yet to actually play with the revised rules.

1. Continued recording for double duration.
2. No volume control. Playback causes sonic damage.
3. Backmasked. Voice sounds demonic and words are gibberish.
4. Fourth wall-breaking. Spell captures the caster's player's most recent voicemail.
5. There is no trigger, the spell just plays on loop and can't be stopped.
6. The intent of the recording is inverted (e.g. "not" is added in front of the right words).
7. Actually records the caster confessing a secret.
8. Actually records a secret about the campaign world, or a heresy. 50% chance true.

What is the volume of a gaseous human?

Assumptions:

• A "standard" adult is 70 kg.
• Standard temperature and pressure.
• 68% of the body is water, and the remaining molecules are large enough to be relatively few in number and therefore negligible.
• If the previous assumption is one extreme, then the other is that the body is 100% water. This will let us bound the possible values.

Then we do some dimensional analysis and bad math (18 ≈ 22.4, 68% ≈ 50%):

70 kg	kg⋅mol	22.4 m3
	18 kg	kg⋅mol

70 kg	kg⋅mol	22.4 m3	≈ 70 m3
	18 kg	kg⋅mol

So if a human is 100% water,then they will take up ~70 m³ as a gas, but at the other extreme, they'll be about ~35 m³.

Spark Tables

I've become enamored of Into the Odd's spark tables (above). And I've been looking for them pre-assembled because I'm lazy. I was pleasantly surprised to find this list of 100 Adjectives Used in Basic English, and sad to discover that it only has 99 adjectives in it. I added the ubiquitous "roll twice and combine" to round it out to a d100 table, but this doesn't feel great if you were already rolling twice to find unexpected combinations. I might consider subsetting this list as a starting point for my own spark tables.

1. able
2. acid
3. angry
4. automatic
5. beautiful
6. black
7. boiling
8. bright
9. broken
10. brown
11. cheap
12. chemical
13. chief
14. clean
15. clear
16. common
17. complex
18. conscious
19. cut
20. deep
21. dependent
22. early
23. elastic
24. electric
25. equal
26. fat
27. fertile
28. fixed
29. flat
30. free
31. frequent
32. full
33. general
34. good
35. great
36. gray
37. hanging
38. happy
39. hard
40. healthy
41. high
42. hollow
43. important
44. kind
45. like
46. living
47. long
48. male
49. married
50. material
51. medical
52. military
53. natural
54. necessary
55. new
56. normal
57. open
58. parallel
59. past
60. physical
61. political
62. poor
63. possible
64. present
65. private
66. probable
67. quick
68. quiet
69. ready
70. red
71. regular
72. responsible
73. right
74. round
75. same
76. second
77. separate
78. serious
79. sharp
80. smooth
81. sticky
82. stiff
83. straight
84. strong
85. sudden
86. sweet
87. tall
88. thick
89. tight
90. tired
91. true
92. violent
93. warm
94. wet
95. wide
96. wise
97. white
98. yellow
99. young
100. roll twice, combine

What's the Deal with this Island? (Pt. 1.5)

To my shame, I missed the relevant generators on Abulafia in my previous roundup.

Ancient Greek Island Names

Where to get it

Abulafia, but apparently it is drawn from AGON.

What is it

Generates five plausible names of Greek islands every refresh. Underneath, it appears to be a flat table of ~100 entries (I didn't count).

Sample Output

• Kandeloussa
• Kefalonia
• Mykonos
• Armathia
• Vous

Notes

Could be useful in a specifically Greek campaign, but doesn't give any insight into the island, so not great in a pinch. Risk of duplicates if used a lot.

Island

Where to get it

Abulafia

What is it

Generates ten island outlines every refresh. Underneath it's a mess of nested tables (which is what Abulafia does best, and which also would be really annoying as dice-rolling exercises).

Sample Output

• Plentiful Island. Stream. Catoblepas. Tarn. Hill. Stream.
• Luxuriant Island. Cave. Marble.
• Teeming Island. . Hill.
• Sandy Island. Poisonous rivulet. Porous Lava Spring.
• Rugged Isle. Hill.
• Monstrous Island. Giant rats. . Hill. Water naga. Giant lampreys. Promontory. Hill.
• Teeming Island. Dormant fissure volcano. Hill. Stream. Agate.
• Barren Rocks. No features. Try again!
• Meager Isle. Warm spring.
• Luxuriant Island. Cave. Active dome volcano. Mountain. Stream. Hill. Hill. Cliff. Stream.

Notes

I like some of the specificity it gives that wouldn't normally appear. For example, and island made of agate is great! And it gives some of the same "ecosystem" type stuff that I like about other generators. But it also requires a little extra parsing (e.g. "Mountain. Stream. Hill. Hill. Cliff. Stream."), and not every detail is relevant. Also, a lot of the more interesting results are less likely due to the nesting nature of the tables.

Addendum

I have removed a mention of Zak S's Discord server and also a link to some work I did related to it. For more information, see my post here.

What's the Deal with this Island? (Pt.1)

There are lots of tables and methodologies for making islands. I've looked over the ones I could find and collected them here.

At Sea in the Tropics

Where to get it

The Rusty Dagger
This was also part of Secret Santicore 2011.

What is it

A set of six d10 tables: "Cliffs", "Night", "Random", "Ships", "Creepy", and "Islands".

Sample Output

Island 1

Large mechanical insects are scattered across this island. They lie dormant as if, waiting for a signal.

Island 2

This island appears to be a solid chunk of smooth and rounded stone. That outcropping looks almost like a nose. Is the whole island a half submerged head?

Island 3

This is actually and archipelago chain which has been formed into a an island nation. It is a primarily agricultural based society, or it was until the plague struck. The pox struck nearly everyone, so now the stench of rotting bodies and crops is noticeable well out to sea.

Island 4

This is actually and archipelago chain which has been formed into a an island nation. It is a primarily agricultural based society, or it was until the plague struck. The pox struck nearly everyone, so now the stench of rotting bodies and crops is noticeable well out to sea.

Island 5

This is actually and archipelago chain which has been formed into a an island nation. It is a primarily agricultural based society, or it was until the plague struck. The pox struck nearly everyone, so now the stench of rotting bodies and crops is noticeable well out to sea.

Island 6

Volcanic eruptions are creating a new island here. Huge steam clouds form as magma pours into the sea, and black ash falls like snow for miles.

Notes

It's unclear how to use some of the tables, but lots of the ideas are evocative. Because there are only 10 options in "Islands", some of the sample outputs are repeated.

Welcome to Fantasy Island

Where to get it

This was part of Secret Santicore 2014 (p. 22-24, here).

What is it

A set of eight tables: "Normal Island Types" (d20), "Exotic Island Types" (d6), "Ocean Island Weather Events" (2d6), "Adventure Themes" (d12), and four encounter tables (d12) for islands of different sizes.

Sample Output

Island 1

Sea Stack (large)
A narrow rock, taller than wide, and more than 30’ tall.
The Island is home to a shunned, but noble people.

Island 2

Islet (small)
A small patch of land supports a copse of trees, apron of sand.
The island is a massive arena where things fight for the pleasure of unseen overlords.

Island 3

Rock (tiny)
A single large piece of rock jutting up from the water.
The island is a massive arena where things fight for the pleasure of unseen overlords.

Island 4

Greater Island (huge)
A large landmass that includes hills, volcanoes, and real forests.
The island holds is lost culture, advanced in magic.

Island 5

Rock (tiny)
A single large piece of rock jutting up from the water.
The island is a massive arena where things fight for the pleasure of unseen overlords.

Island 6

Cays (large)
A landmass rich enough for a small community of humans.
The island holds a lost culture, advanced in magic.

Notes

I did not include the weather or encounter tables in the sample results, but they may be useful in a pinch. I also did not end up with any "Exotic" island types, because they are only rolled for on a 20, but that could be OK for an extended island campaign. The final "Adventure Themes" table is interesting, but strangely weighted for a d12 (fully 1/3 of the results are "The island is a massive arena[…]").

Mazes & Minotaurs

Where to get it

Mazes & Minotaurs is free here. Island generation is on p. 28-29 of the Maze Masters Guide.

What is it

A set of 14 nested tables (mostly xd6)

Sample Output

Island 1

Ringed by smooth, sandy beaches.
Town with some surrounding villages.
The inhabitants live in harmony.
Remote temple
Gigantic Cyclops

Island 2

A variety of coastline exists.
Powerful city ruling an island kingdom.
Gruesome secret. Is a god involved?
Secretive tower
Hydra
Sphinx

Island 3

A variety of coastline exists.
Small villages.
They have never seen outsiders!
Old road
Lycans
Roc
Stone Titan

Island 4

Ringed by high cliffs.
No settlements, uninhabited by humans.
Ruined fortress
Myrmidons [tiny warriors]
Serpent Men
Sphinx

Island 5

Ringed by high cliffs.
No settlements, uninhabited by humans.
Secretive tower
Ghosts

Island 6

A variety of coastline exists.
Town with some surrounding villages.
Islanders regularly attacked by a cruel monster.
Territorial markers (skulls etc.)
Giant Spiders
Giant Eagles
Empusae [vampire witches]

Notes

I really like this one, but it is more of a process to generate an island. Instead of one or two complicated elements, the tables focus on simple elements, and as you fill in the island, you can imagine how they interact. For all that, it sill goes pretty quickly. I think that the tables unnecessarily combine dice, which will lead to e.g. "Gruesome secret" being more common than "Athletic games underway", and I don't see why that is. If I were using these for an extended campaign, then I'd probably just discard duplicate results.

Tome of Adventure Design

Where to get it

You can buy it from Frog God Games ($21). This is p. 290 of  my copy.

What is it

Two d100 tables: "Unusual Island" (d100), and "Owner of the Island" (d100).

Sample Output

Island 1

Vegetation on the island is intelligent and dangerous.
Titan

Island 2

Island is a graveyard for ships.
Leader of aquatic humanoid tribe

Island 3

Island is a graveyard for ships.
Ghostly leader with minions

Island 4

Central volcanoes.
Powerful religious leader (non-human)

Island 5

Cyclopean statues.
Storm giant

Island 6

Island is a living creature and any tunnels probably lead to internal organs.
Mist creature.

Notes

This isn't really what the book is good at (it's more for brainstorming), so it seems a little unfair. There are only 10 items on "Unusual Islands", so it could just be a d10 table, but everything in the book is mapped to a d100 table.

Pathfinder GameMastery Guide

Where to get it

You can buy it from Paizo ($45 print/$10 PDF). This is p. 216 of my copy.

What is it

One d100 table (25 entries).

Sample Output

Island 1

Island with trees that behave like natural siege artillery, firing enormous nuts and fruit at ships passing too close to shore.

Island 2

Reef rules by warring kingdoms of sentient crabs.

Island 3

Island almost entirely made up of old shipwrecks.

Island 4

Iceberg with a ship trapped in it.

Island 5

Frigid island in the far north filled with countless misshapen monsters trapped within its ice.

Island 6

Frigid island in the far north filled with countless misshapen monsters trapped within its ice.

Notes

I quite like the tables in the Pathfinder GM book, even for non-pathfinder games. There are some other good tables in the "Water Toolbox" section, including "Pieces of Interesting Flotsam", "Ghost Ships and Shipwrecks", and "Sailors and Boatmen".

Weird Science Fantasy Island Generator

Where to get it

Weird & Wonderful Worlds

What is it

A set of eight nested tables.

Sample Output

Island 1

Small
Fungal forest
Volcanic
Singing flowers
Apex predator: Camouflage golems
Threat: Long-range reptiles
Other: Reptiles, Fungus
Treasure: 200 gp natural resources

Island 2

Small
Short grass or mossy
Coral forest
Perpetual, localized storm
Apex predator: Super fast golems
Threats: Fast Reptiles, Trap-making birds
Other: Plant animals, Golems
Treasure: 400 gp ancient relic or natural oddity (special)

Island 3

Small
Tall, sparse trees
Synthetic (plastic, metal, etc.)
Apex predator: Massive birds
Threat: Poisonous golems
Other: Mammals
Treasure: 600 gp ancient relic or natural oddity (mundane)

Island 4

Large
Fungal forest
River of cold blue magma
Apex predator: Fish able to swallow a man whole
Threat: Poisonous mammals
Other: Reptiles, 2 different kinds of arthropod
Treasure: 800 gp ancient relic or natural oddity (special)

Island 5

Tiny
Fungal Forest
Synthetic (plastic, metal, etc.)
Apex predator: Super strong reptiles
Threats: Strong reptiles
Other: Mammals
Treasure: 100 gp natural resource

Island 6

Tiny
Dense, woody forest
Floating building-sized plates
Singing flowers
Scattered, ancient, advanced relics
Apex predator: Poisonous fungus
Threats: Durable fungus
Other: Mammals
Treasure: 200 gp natural resource

Notes

This is most similar to the Mazes & Minotaurs generator, but feels slightly less interesting, I think because it leaves the categories so broad (e.g. "mammals"). I quite like the re-use of base types though, so that we can see Island 5 has Super Strong Reptiles that prey on Strong Reptiles, for example. I also like the conceit of building the "ecosystem" on each island.
I did arbitrarily make the decision that each niche could not support more "species" than the size roll of the island.
These tables would be much faster if there were numbers in front of the options.

Uncharted Isles: a Saltbox Generation Toolkit

Where to get it

Billy Goes to Mordor

What is it

Unlike the other tables here, this is actually a method for mapping a bunch of islands.

Sample Output

Island 1

Small (1 square)
Rocky
Ruin: Settlement of a monstrous race, with a plague or curse
Person of Note: Naval Officer

Island 2

Large (9 squares)
Surrounded by hidden reefs
Salt-swamp
Ruin: Fortress of a wizard, with monsters
Ruin: Settlement of a wizard, with technology
Ruin: Other ruin of a wizard, with a plague or curse
People of Note: 3 Natives, 1 Colonist, 2 Pirates, 1 Naval Officer

Island 3

Small (2 squares)
Jungle
Ruin: Settlement of a humanoid race, with a treasure
Ruin: Temple of a humanoid race, with a weapon
People of Note: 2 Pirates

Island 4

Medium (7 squares)
Rocky
Ruin: Industrial/scientific complex of a wizard, with technology
Ruin: Fortress of a giant race, with a plague or curse
Ruin: Fortress of an ancient pagan race, with technology
Ruin: Other ruin of inhuman things from another dimension, with a survivor
Ruin: Temple of an ancient pagan race, with monsters
People of Note: 3 Natives, 2 Colonists, 1 Escaped Slave

Island 5

Medium (7 squares)
Freshwater river
Rocky
Ruin: Settlement of inhuman things from another dimension, with a weapon
Ruin: Settlement of a monstrous race, with monsters
Ruin: Temple of a humanoid race, with a plague or curse
Ruin: Settlement of a giant race, with a plague or curse
People of Note: 2 Natives, 1 Colonist, 1 Escaped Slave

Island 6

Large (18 squares)
Freshwater river
Surrounded by hidden reefs
Jungle
Ruin: Tomb of inhuman things from another dimension, with a survivor
People of Note: 3 Natives, 1 Colonist, 1 Escaped Slave

Notes

I misunderstood the directions and placed 1d6 ruins on each island, instead of distributing them. I did the same thing for persons of note. This has made for some very dense islands, and a less enjoyable generation experience, but I hope that this will not reflect undeservedly on the toolkit.
I arbitrarily decided island size by 1d4 (this seems common). I limited hte number of ruins and notable people that an island can hold by the size roll. I also skipped names and interrelations of the notable people, and I skipped settlement and lair generation as well.

Worms Upon a Piece of Wood

Where to get it

Legacy of the Bieth

What is it

Five nested tables (for island generation), and an ocean encounter table.

Sample Output

Island 1

Flock of monstrous avians (harpies, perytons, etc.)

Island 2

Inhabitants are very welcoming to outsiders, but have strange customs which wind up causing pain. Sindbad encountered this with the islanders who insisted he marry one of them, but then revealed that if one spouse dies, the other is buried alive with them. Some other examples might be ritual sacrifice

Island 3

Cannibals

Island 4

Sorcerer keeping the populace in thrall through use of charm spells to set up a secret police. No, everything's fine here in this little island village, how are you?
Demon-possessed large animals (think the Lions of Tsavo but worse and all demonic) committed to terrorizing the locals. No interest in rulership or gross consumption, but to cause pervasive terror. Or they're waiting for something, killers even more horrendous than the animal that they now ride...

Island 5

Perfectly symmetrical island. When structures are built on one side facsimiles will appear on the other. Same for the remains of any sapient being. Every day that a facsimile is separated from the island, roll a d6; on a 3+ the facsimile disappears.

Island 6

Colony of ghuls - erudite, urbane, eaters of the dead, and running out of consumable corpses.

Notes

Even though the tables are nominally held together by a 1d4 table, and there is the possibility of combining multiple options, I feel like the options are complete enough and the overlaps simple enough that this might work better as a single table.

Low Country Point Crawl Prep: Barrier Island Generator

Where to get it

Unlawful Games

What is it

Four d20 tables.

Sample Output

Savage Man’s [Island]

Small, Forested
Natives

Dead Alligator [Island]

Medium, Rocky
Uninhabited

Green Man’s [Island]

Medium, Marshland
Uninhabited

Hermit Helena’s [Island]

Medium, Sandbar
Natives

Surly Helena’s [Island]

Large, Structures
Uninhabited

Lost Snake [Island]

Medium, Marshland
Colonists

Notes

Apart from the names of islands, I don't feel like this table is really adding a lot. Similar to "Welcome to Fantasy Island", there is a subtable for "Other" islands, but it is only used on a roll of 20.

100 Uncharted Islands

Where to get it

DnDSpeak

What is it

One d100 table, 100 options. Handy "Generate" button.

Sample Output

Island 1

An island with only one inhabitant, a crazed artist trying to find his muse. He will paint portraits of all who visit him but will destroy them hours later as they did not meet his standards and do not show his inspiration for art.

Island 2

A small rocky island. On the South side, a dock pokes tentatively out of the mouth of a cave at sea level. A long staircase winds up inside the rock from the cave to a temple on the top of the island, long abandoned. The Western side houses a small beach, then a sheer cliff overlooked by the temple gardens, now overgrown. The rest of the island is barren rock, rising upwards from the sea.

Island 3

This island seems to be in constant movement... Turns out it actually is a tiny island that sits on top of a enormous turtle that roams the surface of the ocean. The island is a patch of sand and dirt that sits on its shell, a single, tiny tree sits on top of it.

Island 4

A tiny rocky island with a large tower, the top is illuminated by a very powerful Light spell. This is used as a lighthouse but there isn’t a shore nearby, the lighthouse keeper is elderly and doesn’t remember why they are there or who sent them.

Island 5

A giant knot of vegetation. Kelp extends deep into the waters below, and mangrove-like trees are rooted into the mats of kelp.

Island 6

An island is floating above the sea, about twenty feet from the top of the ocean. On top of the island is a library run by Chameleon warriors who travel around collecting books for their massive library. You can find information about nearly any civilization here, for a price.

Notes

As a crowdsourced-from-reddit table, the quality of entries varies wildly. At least one entry is just a list of short suggestions that were never properly separated, multiple entries are the Zaratan, multiple entries are giant skulls that only look like islands, the units are arbitrary (feet, km, miles, meters), etc. Still, there's some good stuff too, and as the first 100-entry d100 table it is at least full of variety.

Islands in the Sky: Random Island Generator

Where to get it

A Pack of Knolls

What is it

Four tables with some nested rolls and a sky travel encounter table.

Sample Output

Island 1

1 sq mile, plains/prairie
Organized militaristic humanoids
100% human

Island 2

1 sq mile, fey or shadow
House on a hill (occupied)
20% gnome, 20% dragonborn, 20 % shadar-kai, 20% fomorian, 20% drow

Island 3

3 sq mile, fey or shadow
Artisan town
100% human

Island 4

0.5 sq mile, badlands
Small trading village
100% troglodyte

Island 5

24 sq mile, desert
Wilderness
100% wilden

Island 6

4 sq mile, fey or shadow
Wilderness
100% human

Notes

The racial makeup is not very evocative for me, and consequently I feel that these tables also do not carry their weight. Technically these are sky-islands, but I figure the principles are the same.

D100 Islands

Where to get it

Elf Maids & Octopi

What is it

Two d100 tables: "Insular Islands within and around Exile Island", and "Islands and oceanic phenomena on Planet Psychon".

Sample Output

Island 1

A lonely, haunted gravesite, haunted by one undead.

Island 2

Grog shop under tarpaulin over fallen tree with local exotic sentients drinking together

Island 3

Lich dwells in a fortified tomb and a lich inside has power only limited by corpses

Island 4

Drunken cult of the wine god holidaying here in stupors

Island 5

A vampire lord is trapped here, a crumbling collapsed manor is only remnants

Island 6

A gigantic sea serpent hides in a cave here to recover from encounters with worse monsters

Notes

I did not see the second d100 table, so none of the sample islands were generated from it. I generally like these, but some of them link to other d100 tables, and I don't think there's any particular "island" feeling about those ones.

Adrift Amid the Random Isles

Where to get it

Tales from the Sorcerer's Skull

What is it

Six tables

Sample Output

Island 1

Volcanic (active)
Large
Sahuagin, war-like women (man-hungry)
Earth-bound god

Island 2

Coral atoll
Large
Uninhabited

Island 3

Volcanic (active)
Small
Animals
Froghemoth

Island 4

Voclanic (extinct)
Small
Humanoid cargo cult

Island 5

Volcanic (active)
Medium
Uninhabited
Living statues

Island 6

Mountain top of a drowned continent
Very small
Animals
Giant animal

Notes

By making civilization so rare, I feel like the more interesting possibilities of these tables are limited.