Greyhakapp
Greyhawk Appearance Generation INTRODUCTION The Greyhawk boxed set introduced a coding system for defining what the racial background of humans in various countries was. So, OFs would represent an area where the predominant racial influence is Oeridian, followed closely by Flan, with a dash of Suel. With four different racial types (Baklunish being the remaining one), each mixed in different proportions and two different degrees (indicated by capital and small letters), there are a lot of possible combinations (several thousand). As such, if one is to generate appearance tables a method other than generating all possible combinations is needed. There are essentially two approaches to this outlined here. The first requires less mathematics but is slightly slower to use, the second method switches priorities around. In both cases the aim is to show how the DM can produce appearance generation tables for use in the areas of his/her campaign that are of interest, and ignore areas which simply are not relevant to his/ her game. Each system generates the following four attributes: Hair colour, hair type (wavy, straight, or kinked), skin colour, and eye colour. Racial Master Tables The tables below are used in both methods and can be used on their own if a "pure-bred" member of one of the races is needed, of course. Oeridian Attributes Skin Colour 01 Dark 0233 Tan 3464 Caucasian 6596 Fair 9700 Olive Eye Colour 0135 3646 4781 8291 9296 9700
Hair Colour 0104 0514 1524 2557 58-89 90-99 00 Hair Type 0176 77-100
Light Blond Blond Dark Blond Reddish Blond Brown Dark Brown Black
Brown Dark Brown Grey Blue Green Blue-Green
Curly Straight
METHOD I In this method, the DM generates a small set of tables for the country or area of interest and these are rolled on to determine which racial table is then used for a subsequent roll to find the actual attribute in question. To do this, use one of the following tables, depending on the number of races which are mixed in the area in question: Two races 1st race 60 2nd race 40 Three races 1st race 50 2nd race 30 3rd race 20 Four races 1st race 40 2nd race 30 3rd race 20 4th race 10 If any race is indicated by a lower case letter then half it's value shown in the table and distribute the points saved equally amongst the others, with any odd points going to the first listed race. From this you should be able to produce a single master table for the area. For example, in the area of Dyvers the mixture is listed as `OSfb'. Since this has four races the last table listed above is used. However, both the third and fourth races are denoted by lower-case letters and so they are halved in value on the table, going from 20 to 10 and 10 to 5 respectfully. This is a combined reduction of 15 points which is loaded onto the other two races (8 to O and 7 to S) to give the following weights: Dyvers Master Table (weights) Oeridian 48 Suel 37 Flan 10 Baklunish 5 It is the work of but a moment to convert this to the final chart: 0148 4985 8695 9600 Dyvers Master Table Oeridian extraction Suel extraction Flan extraction Baklunish extraction
Suloise Attributes Skin Colour 0121 Albino 22-89 Pale 90-98 Fair 99-00 Olive Eye Colour 0141 4253 54 5559 6000
Hair Colour 0108 0916 1780 8100 Hair Type 0109 1030 3100
Light Red Yellow Blond Platinum Blond
Pale Blue Violet Grey Grey-Blue Deep Blue
Straight Curly Kinked
Baklunish Attributes Skin Colour 0102 Tan 0375 Bronze 7678 Dark 7900 Golden Eye Colour 0141 4282 8395 96-00
Hair Colour 0116 1732 3384 8500 Hair Type 0176 77-100
Black Blue/Black Dark Brown Brown
Grey-Green Green Grey Hazel
Curly Straight
Flan Attributes Skin Colour 0106 0721 2270 7185 8600 Eye Colour 0168 6989 9098 9900 Example A player is rolling up a character from Dyvers using the example location master-table above. For skin colour she rolls 87: Flan extraction. A second d100 roll on the Flan skin colour table results in 34 which gives a final result of Brown' for skin colour. The second roll on the master table is an 11: Oeridian hair colour. A roll on the Oeridian hair colour gives a 44 andReddish Brown' is the result. The same procedure is followed for hair type (89--Flan extraction, 11: curly) and eye colour (56--Suel extracion, 92: deep blue). As an option the DM may allow the player to roll once on the locationtable to determine a single racial extraction. This is probably a more realistic method, but in a fantasy game that may not be a desirable goal. 1 Copper Tan Brown Dark Black Hair Colour 0141 4281 8294 9599 00 Hair Type 0176 7700
Black Brown/Black Dark Brown Brown Reddish Brown
Dark Brown Black Brown Amber
Curly Wavy
NOTE:: each range of numbers is calculated from the above table by adding the score on the `weights' table to the final number on the previous line, assuming zero for the initial line. So the first line in our example ends at 48, and the next line ends at 48+37=85 and so on. This Location Master Table is now used with the Racial Master Tables by simply rolling for each attribute on the location table to find which racial table to make the second roll on.
METHOD II The second approach to the issue of appearance generation involves combining the master racial tables that apply to an area into one set of hair, skin, and eye tables tailored specifically to that location. This requires more calculation `up-front' but results in faster generation using the result. Proceed by creating a master weight table as in Method I. Let's use the Dyvers one again: Dyvers Master Table (weights) Oeridian 48 Suel 37 Flan 10 Baklunish 5 We then apply this table in turn to each of the four racial master tables to produce a local appearance table for each of skin colour, hair colour, hair type, and eye colour. e.g., In this case for the Dyvers Skin Colour table we take each entry in the four races' skin colour tables in turn and multiply them by the percentage weight shown on the above table, dropping all fractions below .5 and rounding .5 up. If two successive lines have the same value, then drop the one which had the lowest chance of appearing on the racial master tables. Each time you start using a new racial table, go back to zero. When you reach the end of a particular racial table, the final entry should end on the same value as shown on the weights table (i.e., in this case, the Oeridian entries should end at 48, the Suel at 37, the Flan at 10, and the Ballunish at 5). Due to the rounding that is used this will sometimes not be the case, either the last entry will be over or under by a point. Simply add or subtract the required amount from the last entry in that section. (Alternatively, the fractions can be kept but this can introduce its own problems). Using this system we get the following partial table: Dyvers skin Colour (partial working) Tan (Dark was rounded away and 16 is .49x33) Caucasian (64x.49) Fair Olive (The last Oeridian score) Albino (.37x20) Pale Fair (Olive is rounded away so this ends Suel) Tan (Copper was rounded away) Brown Dark Black (End of Flan attributes) Bronze (.05x75) Golden
Dyvers Hair Colour Table 0102 Light Blond 0331 Blond 3236 Dark Blond 3751 Reddish Blond 5269 Brown 7076 Dark Brown 7779 Light Red 8082 Yellow 8389 Platinum Blond 9095 Black 9699 Brown/Black 00 Blue/Black Dyvers Hair Type Table 0156 Curly 5772 Straight 7399 Kinked 00 Wavy Notes
Dyvers Eye Colour Table 0118 Brown 1930 Dark Brown 3148 Grey 4953 Blue 5457 Green 5859 Blue-Green 6074 Pale Blue 7579 Violet 8081 Grey-Blue 8296 Deep Blue 9798 Black 9900 Grey-Green
Close inspection of the above tables will reveal one difference between Method I and Method II--the second system drops out charateristics which have less than a half of a percent of appearing. Thus, the final Dyvers tables in Method II give no chance of a character having amber-coloured eyes, where as Method I give such a result for 1 in every 500 people. This could be resolved by using d1000 instead of d100. Whether the DM uses d1000 or d100, Method II needs half as many rolls to produce a character's appearance than Method I and is thus better suited to use in the campaign's main area where the work to produce the tables will pay off in the long run. Outsiders from other areas can be generated by Method I as and when needed. All the above procedures can be quite easily done by a computer program if needed, of course, but it is perhaps worth pointing out that Dyvers is a particularly complex example due to its role as a trading city with every race represented and is `as bad as it gets'. Most other areas are much easier and quicker to generate tables for. Baldness is not covered by this system, although it is clearly an issue that the DM will want to consider. Age, profession, sex, race, and fashion all potentially play a part in the incidence of baldness but the DM will have to decide the particulars.
0116 1731 3246 4748 0107 0833 3437 0102 0307 0809 10 0104 05
In this case, an extra point had to be added to the entry for Fair' which came from the Suel master table to finsish off that section of the chart. This table can then be rearranged by adding the final score in each section to all the scores after it (i.e., 48 is added to all the scores afterOlive' in the Oeridian section, an additional 37 to those after Tan' and `Fair' were combined in the final table given above for neatness, this is not necessary. Once this procedure is carried out for all four attributes, the tables so created can be simply rolled on to determine a characters appearance. Here's the rest of the Dyvers appearance tables: 2