"It's so cool to see a community come together and create something with a singular goal in mind. People from all walks of life, many different countries, many different backgrounds come together to add their suggestions!"
Talking d100 tables with Casey of dndspeak.com and r/d100
Q&A With Casey of DnDSpeak
How did you get into creating random lists?
I have been a DM for about 5 years now, and one of my favorite things to do during my games are random encounters. Before dndspeak.com, I would search the internet and RPG books for any sort of wilderness or city encounter that I could throw at my players. I created mini javascript programs on my laptop that would generate one from the list for me.
When I saw the lack of organization that was out there for d100 lists, I thought that my collection of lists would be useful to others out there. They bring so much inspiration, especially in the planning stage of DMing.
What lists of yours or the d100 subreddit are you proudest of and why?
One of my absolute favourite lists that we have ever created is the 100 Demon Lords list. That one took a few months to complete, but oh, was it worth it! There is so much thought that went into it from the community.
I have actually fit a few of them into my main campaign that I'm playing now and they always have a knack for fitting perfectly into the game. The answers that the community provided are so in depth and vibrant, that you could create entire campaigns from any one of these demons.
What is the most fun thing about creating lists?
My absolute favourite part of the list process is seeing the incredibly wide range of answers we get. They seem to cover almost all the bases for any given topic! We've had some lists where 60+ people have contributed.
It's so cool to see a community come together and create something with a singular goal in mind. People from all walks of life, many different countries, many different backgrounds come together to add their suggestions!
What are the most painful lessons you've learnt from creating the r/d100 and dndspeak.com?
One of the things I'm beginning to notice with the growth in popularity is the consistent influx of people suggesting lists in the subreddit that they want complete, which is a good thing!
But on the other hand, with more and more people wanting lists made, they don't stay on the front page of the subreddit for very long before they are buried. In the old days of the subreddit, a single list would stay on the front page for a week at a time, giving it lots of attention.
I'm attempting to combat this problem by adding an index of unfinished lists stickied to the top of the sub, so that people can check which lists are still in progress, and throw a few suggestions in when they can.
How do you use random lists yourself?
I love the randomness of the lists and the challenge that they sometimes present me as a DM. I really enjoy using Wilderness Encounter tables, and I roll for encounters when I'm with my players! If they are at a lull, and wandering through the forest, I quickly take out my Wilderness Encounter list and roll on it.
Lets say I get "54 - The Party encounters a den of sleeping mountain lions. In the far end of the cave, the players notice the gleam of a powerful sword."
This creates an amazing scenario of the players trying to fetch this magical sword in the back of the cave without waking the lions. Or, maybe they do wake them up and have to fight! Or, maybe they put their animal handling skill to good use!
Once the players reach the sword, I can roll on a random sword list to see what they got. The spontaneity of the situations are what make me a better DM, and keep the players on their toes.
What are your next big projects (lists or otherwise) that you can talk about?
The next big step for DNDSpeak is the PDF Library. I get asked all the time to create PDF versions of each list, and I'm in the process of finally doing it!
I've got a design in mind that I'm sticking to, and I'm going to be releasing them over the coming months. The end result will hopefully be a well-designed d100 list that DMs can print at home and add to their game binders.
Right now, I offer the PDFs through our Patreon, and $3 will get you everything in the library. I hope this becomes useful to everyone who has asked for this!
Another big project I'm currently working on is a section of the site devoted to generators. For example: An NPC Generator. This would generate every detail about a NPC you could imagine, from hairstyle to background, all using the lists that have been created within DNDSpeak. Keep an eye out for that within a month or two. I'm very excited about it!
One final project for the future, I would love to compile all the finished d100 lists that we've created and compile them into a book. That's a big dream of mine.
Where can people find you on social media?
DnDSpeak has a facebook and twitter account. It is backed by the d100 subreddit
Is there anything else you would like to talk about?
Just want to give a Massive shoutout to the dndspeak community. We have such a great bunch, so many talented, kind human beings.
Everyone is so helpful and supportive, it's very refreshing to be a part of an increasingly positive community. Couldn't have done it without you all!
More....
You can find more creator interviews on Rand Roll.
What are you favourite r/d100 tables?
