The Nocturnal Table
"The City is a maze. A labyrinth of alleyways¸ plazas¸ shortcuts and hidden thoroughfares¸ it isn't any less treacherous to navigate than a dungeon. At least during the day¸ the worst one can expect is a greedy patrol of guards eager for a shakedown¸ or a thief in the crowd¸ ready to make a grab and run for it. At night¸ the sensible and the timid hurry home and bolt their doors. Ecstatic revellers¸ madmen¸ assassins¸ religious fanatics¸ thrill-seekers¸ enigmatic apparitions and tiger-headed opium nightmares prowl the streets. And the guards are still not helping. The Nocturnal Table is a supplement intended to bring you this city by way of an encounter system¸ random inspiration tables¸ NPC and monster statistics¸ as well as a giant nighttime random encounter table¸ whose three hundred entries can serve as interludes as well as springboards for complicated investigative scenarios and fantastic conspiracies."
The Nocturnal Table is a 60-page game aid dedicated to city-based adventures¸ lavishly illustrated by Matthew Ray (cover)¸ Peter Mullen¸ Stefan Poag and Denis McCarthy. This is a game aid designed for regular table use¸ and formatted to be comfortable and accessible¸ offering a handy guide to design and run adventure scenarios in a large¸ sinful city filled with action and intrigue.
At the core of The Nocturnal Table is a 300-entry table of random encounters and odd events you can run into at night in a busy fantasy metropolis. From a patrol of guards carrying a slain comrade¸ to a sinister beggar-catcher soliciting the aid of dishonest adventurers¸ or a skeleton covered in grey ooze¸ its eyes glittering gemstones shambling towards the party¸ all the wonder and menace of a city-crawl are at hand. But that is not all. With The Nocturnal Table¸ you can…
- create general encounters with the aid of a comprehensive encounter system…
- g enerate merchants selling strange and fantastic goods (as seen in Echoes From Fomalhaut #01)…
- find out what's in their pockets…
- generate local colour on the fly…
- stock warehouses with exotic goods to plunder…
- and set up secret meetings and investigation sites!
Guidelines are also offered to re-use the encounters and chart contents for the construction of bizarre plotlines and sinister conspiracies which rule from the shadows… while the City sleeps. All that¸ and more are at your disposal in… The Nocturnal Table!
This electronic edition is provided free of charge to people who have purchased the print version.