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(+1)

I do have a question! Well, two. First, how do the location table and dialogue table work? Second, in the meaning table/name generator there's also numbers like 12, 12o, 2-i, what do those mean? Thanks a lot, hoping you get to work on the document soon!

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There is a comment just a little bit further down explaining the dialog grid, I hope that clears it up.

The location grid is for identifying where something might be (for example, asking a question like "where is the monster hiding" or trying to add more context to what a "remote" random event might mean. You can use the grid 2 ways: as a map, or as a compass.

For "map" mode, imagine your world map with a 5x5 grid overlaid on top of it (you can also start with a smaller region if you choose). Roll 1d100 to "zoom" into that section of your map. You can loop as many times as you want to get closer, such as zooming into a continent, then zooming into a specific region, then zooming into a settlement, etc. You can also skip all that and start wherever you want. The point is to pick a random cell on some map as the oracle's answer. I sometimes use it to say "where in the dungeon is the treasure".

For "compass" mode, imagine your character is at the center. Roll 1d100, and whichever cell is select tells you both the direction and the distance (the inner ring means close, the outer ring means far). Useful for "I heard a noise, where did it come from?". Also useful for determining which direction the creature tracks are headed, and how far you might be able to follow them before losing track (or requiring another skill check to keep the trail).


The name generator might be confusing at first, but it is very powerful. There are 4 columns. The last column is ordered such that the top half (the smaller numbers) gives more masculine sounding names, and the bottom half (the bigger numbers) gives more feminine sounding names. First, roll 1d20 on the first column, which tells you how to roll on the remaining 3 columns. If you see a 3+, it means roll 1d10 on the bottom half (the bigger numbers, think "advantage"). 3- means roll 1d10 on the top half (think "disadvantage"). No +/- means roll the 1d20 on the full table. (You can also roll 1d20 with advantage or disadvantage instead of rolling 1d10 if you want, it will still work out). Endings of "o", "a", or "i" mean append that letter to the end of the name. Many of the masculine endings can be made feminine by adding an "a" or "i".

The cool part is that the FIRST column is also ordered such that the smaller numbers give masculine sounding names, and the larger numbers give feminine sounding names. So you can roll on the first column with 1d20 advantage or disadvantage if you want to skew the results a certain way.


Examples!
Roll 1d10 on the first column, and get a "2". This corresponds to "12o", so roll 1d20 on column 1, 1d20 on column 2, then append an "o". 7, 19 -> Kasarko


For a roll of 10, this means roll on column 1 three times. Note that the first 5 entries of column 1 have (parentheses), for these you start with a vowel only at the beginning of the name, and use the (letter) if rolling for the middle of a name.
So rolls of 4, 14, 2 would be Olepe

A roll of 17 means "23+", so roll 1d20 on column 2, then 1d10 on the bottom half of column 3. 17, 1 -> Grana

A roll of 19 means "123-i", so 1d20, 1d20, 1d10 on the top half, then append "i". 2, 13, 8 -> Ejamoni

A roll of 13 means "12a". 11, 8 -> Belima

Hopefully that helps make sense of it. It is a bit tricky to squeeze such a versatile table into a small space while not making it too esoteric.