Random Campaign Generator

There have been a few posts in the gaming blogosphere about describing your setting in 25 words, e.g. here.

This post will provide a means to randomly fill in those 25 words. It will also double as a random Celestial Empire campaign game generator.

The setting is a [1st keyword][2nd keyword] set in [3rd keyword] dynasty [4th keyword]. The player characters are pitted against [5th keyword] set to [6th keyword]. Most of their foes are [7th keyword].

Table No.1, keyword: genre
Roll 1D6
1: Historical
2: Low-magic
3: Wǔlín
4: Wǔxiá
5: High-fantasy
6: Gonzo

Table No.2, keyword: game type
Roll 1D6
1-2: Sandbox
3-4: Series of connected adventures
5-6: Big campaign

Table No.3, keyword: dynasty
Roll 1D8
1-2: Táng
3: Sòng
4: Yuán
5-6: Míng
7-8: Qīng

Table No.4, keyword: region
Roll 1D12
1: Inner Asia
2: Gānsù
3-5: North China
6-7: Lower Yángzi
8-9: Sìchuān
10-11: South China
12: islands and seas

Table No.5, keyword: foes
Roll 1D12
1: Kinsmen
2-3: Members of the (Roll 1D6) 1-4: eunuch faction, 5-6: anti-eunuch faction
4-5: Members of the (Roll 1D6) 1-2: military, 3-4: secret police, 5-6: bureaucracy
6: Loyalists
7: Outlaws
8: Rebels
9: Members of a shètuán (TCE p100)
10: Members of an ethnic minority
11: Members of a sect
12: Merchants

Table No.6, keyword: aim
Roll 1D10
1-2: Amass power
3: Amass wealth
4-5: Further their agenda
6-7: Travel (Roll 1D6) 1-2: through China proper, 3-4: through the frontier provinces, 5-6: abroad
8-9: Fight against their opposite faction— or a GM-devised one if no opposite faction exists
10: Proselytise

Table No.7, keyword: allegiance
Use the Religion availability table appropriate to the dynasty rolled in Table No.3 above, see p48 of TCE.

More campaign game ideas are available in The Celestial Empire on p18-20 and on p40-41.