Divine Trappings: Picking Colors and Materials

I might barely be involved when we picked colors to paint our house, but by damn I can do it here!

… that I have a habit of picking colors randomly here might be why I was not so involved in picking house colors.

Ah well, random tables for colors and materials, here we go!

Color Tables

If you’re like me, it’s tempting to stick with just the ‘Color’ column. I mean, I couldn’t tell you the difference between the various whites, or most of the reds, or the various greens or blues.

But while color purists and painters and the like might be able to discern and name the different colors, I use the other names because they just sound cooler than the base name. But I did weight the base color (and in the case of black, a few of the other ones I liked more than the rest) so the base names will come up a little more often.

d10	Color	Roll	Options
1	Black	d20	1-5: black, 6: charcoal, 7: coal, 8: dark, 9: dusky, 10..11: ebon, 12: ebony, 13: jet, 14..15: raven, 16: sable, 17: shadowy, 18: slate, 19..20: stygian
2	White	d12	1-3: white, 4: alabaster, 5: ashen, 6: chalky, 7: frosted, 8: ivory, 9: milky, 10: pale, 11: pearly, 12: snowy
3	Red	d12	1-3: red, 4: cardinal, 5: carmine, 6: cherry, 7: copper, 8: coral, 9: crimson, 10: ruby, 11: russet, 12: scarlet
4	Orange	d10	1-4: orange, 5: ginger, 6: ochre, 7: copper, 8: terracotta, 9: tawny, 10: tangerine
5	Yellow	d10	1-4: yellow, 5: amber, 6: canary, 7: citrine, 8: gold, 9: lemon, 10: tawny
6	Green	d10	1-3: green, 4: aquamarine, 5: chartreuse, 6: jade, 7: jade, 8: lime, 9: moss, 10: verdant
7	Blue	d12	1-3: blue, 4: azure, 5: beryl, 6: cerulean, 7: cobalt, 8: indigo, 9: navy, 10: sapphire, 11: turquoise, 12: ultramarine
8	Purple	d8	1-3: purple, 4: amethyst, 5: lavender, 6: magenta, 7: mauve, 8: violet
9	Brown	d12	1-3: brown, 4: beige, 5: bronze, 6: ecru, 7: fawn, 8: khaki, 9: rust, 10: sepia, 11: tan, 12: umber
10	Metal		(roll on Metal Table, below)

Material Tables

Material Table

Must start somewhere, right?

I’m not totally enamored of the ‘organic’ entry, it feels like there could be more… I’ll come back to it another time.

d12	Material	Roll	Options
1	Dirt	d10	1-3: dirt, 4: clay, 5: dust, 6: loam, 7: muck, 8: mud, 9: sand, 10: soil
2..3	Gem		(roll on Gem Table, below)
4..6	Metal		(roll on Metal Table, below)
7	Organic	d8	1: bone, 2: coral, 3: fur, 4: ivory, 5: leather, 6: shell, 7: silk, 8: wool
8..10	Stone		(roll on Stone Table, below)
11..12	Wood		(roll on Wood Table, below)

Gem Table

Yes, with 40 gem types I could have gone with two 20-entry rows or four 10-entry rows, but here I have three that even distribute most of the entries (the lower-value ones sound pretty cool, so good enough for my purpose), while giving extra weight to the jewels (diamond, emerald, ruby, sapphire).

d6	Gem Type	Roll	Options
1..2	Generic	d3	1: gem, 2: jewel, 3: crystal
3	Semiprecious	d12	1: agate, 2: alabaster, 3: azurite, 4: hematite, 5: lapis lazuli, 6: malachite, 7: obsidian, 8: pearl, 9: quartz, 10: rhodochrosite, 11: tigereye, 12 turquoise
4	Semiprecious	d12	1: bloodstone, 2: carnelian, 3: chrysoprase, 4: citrine 5: ivory, 6: jasper, 7: moonstone, 8: onyx, 9: peridot, 10: sard, 11: sardonyx, 12: zircon
5	Precious	d12	1: amber, 2: amethyst, 3: chrysoberyl, 4: coral, 5: garnet, 6: jade, 7: jet, 8: spinel, 9: tourmaline, 10: aquamarine, 11: opal, 12: topaz
6	Jewel	d4	1: diamond, 2: emerald, 3: ruby, 4:sapphire

Metal Table

d10	Metal	Roll	Options
1	Generic	d1	1: metal
2..6	Common	d10	1: brass, 2: bronze, 3: copper, 4: iron, 5: lead, 6: nickel, 7: pewter, 8: steel, 9: tin, 10: zinc
7..8	Valuable	d5	1: copper, 2:silver, 3: electrum, 4: gold, 5: platinum
9	Rare	d10	1: alchemist silver, 2: aluminum, 3: antimony, 4: bismuth, 5: cobalt, 6: magnesium 7: mercury, 8: palladium, 9: titanium, 10: tungsten
10	Magic	d12	1: adamantine, 2: arcanite, 3: astralmetal, 4: bluesteel, 5: cinnabryl, 6: cold iron, 7: darksteel, 8: hellmetal, 9: icemetal, 10: mithral, 11: orichalcum, 12: starmetal,

Stone Table

d5	Stone	Roll	Options
1	Generic	d2	1: rock, 2: stone
2	Gem		(roll on Gem Table, above)
3	Igneous	d5	1: basalt, 2: granite, 3: obsidian, 4: pumice, 5: quartz
4	Metamorphic	d2	1: marble, 2: slate
5	Sedimentary	d6	1: chalk, 2: coal, 3: flint, 4: limestone, 5: sandstone, 6: shale

Wood Table

d3	Wood	Roll	Options
1	Generic	d1	1: wood
2	Hardwood	d20	1: alder, 2: arbutus, 3: ash, 4: beech, 5: birch, 6: blackwood, 7: bloodwood, 8: cherry, 9: chestnut, 10: ebony, 11: elm, 12: eucalyptus, 13: hickory, 14: ironwood, 15: mahogany, 16: maple, 17: oak, 18: teak, 19: walnut, 20: willow
3	Softwood	d6	1. cedar, 2: fir, 3: hemlock, 4: larch, 5: pine, 6: spruce

Closing Comments

The more random tables I do, the more I come to appreciate the effort Matt Finch put into Tome of Adventure Design. Preparing them for use in my random generator isn’t so bad (it just uses weights, and if it means the table rolls on d17 that’s fine… here I need to adjust things to fit ‘likely’ dice.

Ah well, it’s not that this is difficult, just a little tedious.