Love At First Sight

Once upon a time I was infatuated with the new idea of random tables, and I thought it would be fun to write one about "falling in love at first sight" or ... infatuation. Despite the fact that D&D Basic/Expert already has something kind of representing this with the "reactions roll" (2-12 on 2d6, 2-5 is bad, 6-8 is uncertain, 9-12 is good). No, I wanted a percentile dice table with little fiddly bits for various things.

Well, I'm still infatuated with random tables, especially now that I understand better how to write them, even on the fly (e.g. my d12 secret resurrection table, my d12 secret eating a dragon heart table, the d12 oddments for sale tables posted earlier, my various wilderness encounter tables, etc.). But this table, written at the beginning of my (so far comparatively short) Old School D&D stint, still has a place in my heart. And in the hearts of one of the first players of my Old School game, apparently, as he asked me if I still had it for the game today (Storming Mobrai Castle).

Infatuation in this case doesn't really have any "mechanical" game value. I would roll it once, when characters first meet, to see if there's some kind of "spark" for one or the other individual (and it's explicitly not mutual, just like you can have a crush on someone and they totally don't think you're hot or interesting at all). I don't do it all the time, but it can be nice to roll when you save a prince or princess, or when first meeting a sage or business proprietor to maybe get something extra out of the exchange. I've also used it personally for my own characters to see if they're especially attracted to other PCs or NPCs, to inform my "role playing" and which characters my own pay special attention to.

That is, it's only as "binding" as any one player decides it is, but it can add a fun element of surprise to the game in the form of character attachments and love triangles.

So, without further ado:


With d% dice...
Base chance to fall for someone is 10%
All modifiers are in +/-1% increments.

Charisma:
3          -3
4-5      -2
6-8      -1
9-12      0
13-15  +1
16-17  +2
18        +3

if your race is ...
Human
 +1 humans, half elves; +2 elves; -1 halfling, man-ape; -2 dwarf; -3 half orcs
Half Elf
 +1 humans, elves; +2 half elves; -1 man-apes, -2 dwarves; -3 half orcs
Elf
 +1 elves; -1 humans, halflings, man-apes; -3 dwarves; -4 half orcs
Halfling
 +1 elves, halflings, dwarves; -1 man-apes, -3 half orcs
Dwarf
 +1 dwarves; -1 humans, halflings; -2 half elves, half orcs, man-apes; -3 elves
Half Orc
 +1 humans, man-apes; -1 half elves, half orcs, halflings; -3 elves
Free Goblin
 +1 half-orcs, man-apes, -1 halflings, -2 dwarves, -3 half-elves, -6 elves
Man-Ape
 +1 apes, humans, half-elves, half-orcs, elves

if your Alignment is ...
Lawful
 +1 lawful, +1 clannish, -1 arcane, -1 chaotic, -1 natural
Chaotic
 +1 chaotic, +1 arcane, -1 lawful, -1 clannish
Good
 +1 good, +1 neutral, -1 evil
Neutral
  +1 good, +1 natural
Evil
 -1 good
Arcane
 +1 chaotic, -1 lawful, -1 natural, -1 clannish
Clannish
 +1 lawful, -1 chaotic, -1 natural, -1 arcane


No gnomes? I greatly dislike gnomes as presented as a player class. Gnomes in my game are creepy underground/forest dwellers that eat teeth stolen from children and do other weird things.

Plus, obviously, this table reflects a 1E AD&D world with half-elves and half-orcs. I'll have to come up with classes for them for my B/X game. And free goblins? That's a class I'll post about soon.