ID Tables

Pixel Dungeon

There is one silly little roguelike game that somehow keeps sucking me back in year after year despite its simplicity. Pixel Dungeon is an open source project by the legendary Watabou in which you choose a character class and descend into a deep dungeon where you’ll wander procedurally generated levels, manage your character’s hunger, and pick up new equipment along the way.

It’s a brutal, punishing game. It kills quickly and it kills often. You might encounter a crab in the first section of the dungeon that can outrun you, parry your attacks, and quickly pinch you to death. You might step on a trap that sets you on fire, burns your scrolls up, and takes only a couple turns to empty your HP meter. Regardless of how you find it, death is permanent and means starting from depth 1 all over again.

While the denizens and traps in the dungeon are formidable, one of the greatest threats to new players is the equipment they pick up. In every run, all magic and alchemical items are randomized. Every item in the list of possible items is randomly assigned an effect from a finite list of possible effects. A garnet ring you equip in one run will help you stay hidden, but in another run it might keep your hunger satiated longer.

When a player first picks up an item, however, its assigned effect is hidden at first. The effect can usually be discerned in one of two ways: either by using it and suffering the randomly-assigned consequences, or by reading an identify scroll (a consumable item that is also randomized, so good luck finding that).

In play this might look like the following:

A rogue has picked up a few items from the previous level of the dungeon: a “scroll of IWAS”, a “turquoise potion”, an “opal ring”, and a “yew wand”. They decide they want to discern all of their effects before they continue. Scrolls usually have beneficial effects, so the rogue decides to read the “scroll of IWAS” and tempt fate. Fortunately for them, this is actually a “scroll of identify” which will allow them to identify one other item in their inventory.

They choose to identify the “turquoise potion”, because potions can be both extremely helpful and extremely harmful — depending on whether they are ingested or thrown — with effects that range from fully healing and curing poison, to emitting a paralytic gas that floods the room. The potion is identified as “potion of strength”, which they drink immediately to wield heavier equipment.

Usually, characters would have to wear a ring for a while in order to discern its effects, but as a rogue this character is able to instantly identify it upon putting it on. They put on the “opal ring” and identify it as a “ring of haste -1”, which, as a degraded ring, will actually make them slower. They try to remove the ring but it is cursed and has tightened around their finger; it cannot be removed until the curse is cleansed.

Finally, to discern the effect of their “yew wand”, they decide to test it. They take aim at the wall and cast its spell. Unfortunately, it’s a “wand of firebolt” and they are standing in a patch of grass. The grass ignites, setting the rogue on fire. They rush to water nearby but burn to death before they reach it.

By adding a little randomization, Pixel Dungeon keeps the excitement of discovery and the trepidation at delving into the unknown present in every single delve. Even when you have an encyclopedic knowledge of all items and effects, you can never be totally sure that the potion you’re about to drink won’t cause you to spontaneously combust until you’ve taken a swig or spent the resources to discern its effects. This builds in a strategic layer to every playthrough, with an added bonus of being extremely chaotic.

I’ve replicated this experience in TTRPG play by applying a similar “dual-layer” randomization structure to treasure generation tables, which I’ve termed Item Discovery Tables (aka ID Tables). I’ve released a pack alongside this blog post (including 8 tables +1 fillable pdf to make your own) that you can pick up for a couple bucks on itch.io. It’s also available for free to my patrons!

How does it work?

An ID Table is a lot like any other treasure table, but with two tables in one! Together, Tables A and B handle a single item category, referred to collectively as an ID.

• Table A describes the items in that category. When you find an item that matches that category, choose one or roll a d10 to determine which one you find.
• Table B describes the effect the item has when you interact with it. This information is hidden at first — you must either identify the item or use it to discern its effect.

Using ID Tables

To use an ID Table you will need:

• 1 ten-sided die (d10)
• 1 standard 52 playing card deck

Begin by removing all face cards. Then split the deck of cards into four suits and shuffle each pile. Assign one ID to each pile. You will be able to use up to 4 ID Tables with a single deck of cards.

TIP: Set the face cards face-up next to each pile as a reminder of which suit is in each one.

Incorporate your the items into play. Whenever someone finds an item matching the given category, choose an item or roll a d10 on Table A.

Whenever that item is used in a way that might reveal its effect or identified, draw a card in the corresponding suit from Table B. Record the answer — you might choose to draw a line from the result on Table A to the result on Table B or make a note elsewhere.

OPTION: Shuffle in one of the set-aside face cards to act as a wild card. When that card is drawn, have the player that drew the card describe what effect they want the item to have.

On Identification

Identification is the ability to determine what effect an item might have without triggering it — either to avoid consuming it or to make sure you’re directing its wrath in the right direction. Identification is a powerful strategic tool in the hands of a cunning character who doesn’t want to leave anything up to chance.

In order to strike a balance between the delightful chaos of messing around with things you don’t understand and giving characters the tools they need to stave off an untimely demise, identification will need to be a limited but accessible resource. Depending on the needs of your table and the game you’re playing in, choose three identification prerequisites from the list below.

Reset

Once an item from Table A has been matched to an effect on Table B, every copy of that item now triggers that corresponding effect until a reset. Decide if or when a reset occurs in a way that makes sense for your system. Is it during downtime? During a time skip? When you die? Or only the end of the campaign?

Design Goal: Consistent Variables

There are a series of system-wide patterns that players can study or deduce through their interaction with an ID Table. These are what create the strategic layer to play while providing a container for its randomization. This is the core of what makes ID Tables work.

Some of these logical conclusions are highlighted as keystones in the system. For example:

• When an item is used to perform its function, it triggers an effect (when you burn incense, X happens; When you ride a motorcycle, you learn about Y; etc.)
• Effects can be both positive and negative — sometimes at the same time, and often depending on how they’re employed. (A tome of rot is a poor thing to use on an ally but would be fantastic to use on a door you need to bust through.)
• Identification is the safest way to discern the effect because it because it solves for the variable in the equation.

The variability between tables, between player groups, between dungeon runs, etc. is what adds texture to play, but it is the consistency that engages players’ problem solving abilities by providing rules for managing and dealing with the variability.

Then, once the the variable has been solved for, the effect remains consistent. Once you’ve figured out that the symbol you inscribed on your hand is the mark of a secret society, that fact will not change until the ID resets. This further rewards engaging with the system by allowing players to act on acquired information with confidence.

While there is clear system-wide variable and consistent logic, the same can be said of each table. Each table in the pack is designed with specific use cases in mind. Within a single ID, effects often follow a theme and sometimes even suggest interaction with other effects. With a theme and only ten possible effects per item in a list that dwindles as effects are assigned to items, players can quickly learn to predict outcomes and calculate risk when they need to discern something.

For reference, the tables included in the pack have the following themes:

• ID01: Tomes are inspired by fire emblem and designed for tactical combat utility to suit a magical strategist.
• ID02: Symbols are built to invoke the feeling of folk magic and invite plot hooks. Its effects are always uncertain with lots of “maybe’s,” “probably’s,” and “might’s.”
• ID03: Incense indulged my recent obsession with a developing “perfumer” job for Opera Eterna. Special thanks to the Vatican’s ritual censers, Elden Ring, and Ava Islam for putting the idea in my head. The effects are all non-magical AoE’s, and the items are all distinguishable by scent (allowing for them to be in whatever form of incense you like!)
• ID04: Fungi is a look back at an early and embarrassing RPG project where a friend and I were designing tables of mushrooms with psychoactive effects. The whole ID is rooted somewhere in reality; the items themselves are suggestive combinations of mycological descriptors, and the effects are generally medicinal with some terrifying (and greatly exaggerated) “encounters” mixed in.
• ID05: Programs features an item list of a bunch of terribly named executables with effects that tap into some personal anxiety about the simultaneous, explosive growth in digital functionality and personal vulnerability in this age of smart devices. Intentionally designed with the idea that you’ll probably install multiple programs in the same device, whether that’s a phone, a drone, or a cyber-brain.
• ID06: Ammunition realizes the fantasy of having an arrow (or bolt/bullet/missile/grenade/dart, etc.) for every occasion. When you pepper a few of these arrows throughout a dungeon, suddenly managing ammunition becomes much more exciting.
• ID07: Manufacturer and Model Prefix is the biggest flex (and perhaps stretch) for the way this tech can be used. It brings a series of companies (Items) into the game as manufacturers for any/all of the equipment you might find, each with their own reputation (Effects) for things like build quality and affordability. You might tack their prefix onto any gun you find to introduce Borderlands-esque gun management, where your weapon will perform differently depending on who made it.
• ID08: Motorcycles pays homage to all the cyberpunk motorcyclists out there with a few punchy descriptors for each cycle and a quirk that distinguishes it from the others.

Homebrew-Heaven

Ready to write your own ID? Much like my previous tech pack, I built ID Tables with the purpose of being expanded on. Whether you are reskinning one of the tables I’ve provided or creating something unique to your game, designing new tables should be effortless.

To that end, I’ve included a step-by-step guide and a fillable pdf in the downloads to make the process quick and easy. Grab yourself a copy in the downloads at itch.io or on my Patreon and be sure to share your tables with me! I’ll be keeping an eye on my comments to see what you cook up.

Discovery awaits.

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