Spouse Generator
''I am.' Is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that 'I do.' is the longest sentence?' - George Carlin
This generator is supposed to be a complement to the Npc History Generator (not yet finished).
With it, you can create a spouse to your Npcs and/or Pcs.
This generator is now available in automatic form: Here (Don't forget to vote)
You start by rolling for the 4 denominators(the higher the roll, the better), then roll a d20 and a d4 for the Traits table, the d4 determines which of the boards applies to the d20 roll. I would suggest rolling for no more than 2-3 traits per spouse. If any roll contradicts a previous roll, either reroll the result or try to work it into the persona of the Npc (both cruel AND kind? Maybe they suffer from multiple personality disorder).
These are the four denominators besides love that makes a spouse worth marrying(not counting personality traits).
Looks - Self explanatory, how good your spouse looks. Mostly flavour, but could also affect history in its own rights, think of Helen of Troy.
Wealth - The dowry and possible future heritages.
Contacts - Diplomatic ties, important friends, contacts within trading. I made this a smaller dice, because I personally don't want to create so many additional Npcs, or ties to existing Npcs. Feel free to change this to a d10 or even a d4, depending on your own preferences. Not all ties need to be strong ones, nor do they have to be positive for that matter(ancestral enemies for instance).
Fertile - The abbility to bring forth offspring. In the future, I might include some actual modifiers that tie into the NPC History Generator, but you can also consider these numbers hinting at the results of any childbirths where this spouse is involved, a 6 or higher is pretty much a sure thing for a healthy baby. Remember that the ability to procreate is essential for nobles especially, but a divorce from someone with strong diplomatic ties might be painful for a whole province/country, not to mention possibly ungodly.
It is important to note, that the spouse needn't be female, depending on what cultural values apply in your campaign. This is primarily meant as an auxillary for the more complex Npcs made with the Npc History Generator, and as such this role is meant as the subservient party in a marriage (although the acctual result might dictate otherwise). If you have a campaign were the cultural values dictate that both parties are equal, I would suggest using the Npc History Generator for both parties instead.
But even without the Npc History Generator, these Spouses can stand on their own, and works in any campaign setting, time period and system.
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Looks 1d10 |
Wealth 1d10 |
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Contacts 1d6 |
Fertile 1d10 |
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Traits - 1d20 / 1d4 |
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1,2 |
3,4 |
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These are optional modifiers that can be applied for increased realism.
Feel free to modify them, if you don't agree with the age assessments regarding the modifiers.
Disclaimer: These modifiers do not neccesarily reflect Gossamer's viewpoints, no offense is meant by them, and they should be taken with a big pinch of salt.
Age Modifiers
Teens +2 Looks, -1 Fertile
Young Adult +1 Looks, +1 Fertile
Adult +0 Looks, +0 Fertile
Middle Aged -2 Looks, -4 Fertile
Elderly -4 Looks, -6 Fertile
Geriatric -6 Looks, -8 Fertile
New Additions - The Origin and Contacts Tables
The Origin Table can be used for two purposes;
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1) Determining the Origin of the Spouse.
2) Determining the Origin of the Contact(s).
Sometimes the Origins of the Spouse and the Contacts, seemingly contradict eachother. For instance, if you have a Spouse with Origin Local, and a Contact that's a Childhood Rival from Another Continent, then perhaps the Spouse grew up on another continent simply. But if you really dislike the results, just reroll.
Contacts corresponds to the Contacts up above, start out by rolling the d6. Then roll a number of times on the Contacts 1A Table below, corresponding to the number shown on the d6.
Then you may roll a d4 on the Contacts 2A Table to determine if the contact is Hostile or Friendly. Then roll a d20 on the corresponding Cause Table to determine why. Some of the Causes are intentionally ambigious, and can be interpreted any way you wish.
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Origin - 1d12 |
Contacts 1A - 1d12 |
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*P/F/G - Stands for; Person/Family/Group
**Merchantile/Service, could for example stand for a Store-Clerk/Inn-keeper or a Waitress/Receptionist, depending on what setting you're using. The same goes for Rulers; King/Queen, President, etc.
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Contacts 2A - 1d4 |
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1,2 - Hostile (Cause - 1d20) |
3,4 - Friendly (Cause - 1d20) |
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Anastrazia Felwelt
Age 34
Looks 1 (+0) Wealth 8
Contacts 4 Fertile 3 (+0)
Chaste, Bossy, Learned
Anastrazia was never a comely girl. Frankly a swamp troll would be considered quite a catch when standing next to her. The fact that she's somewhat past her prime doesn't do much to help that fact. Perhaps because of this fact, she doesn't like being touched, which is just as well, as she's almost completely barren.
Locked away most of her life to avoid the public eye, she spent most of her time reading, so she's very well versed in ancient history, herbs and local lineage. Her biggest assest comes from her family fortune, and her father's close ties to the duke of Gorgon. Her family's wealth is also what she draws her confidence from, though some would say that and the bitterness of her appearance has made her quite a shrew.
Young Lord Caliban
Age 15
Looks 10 (+2)
Wealth 10
Contacts 5
Fertile 1 (-1)
Zealous, Supporting, Content
Caliban has a face like an angel, and a voice to go with it. Unfortunately, this voice came at a great cost. Born the third in line in his family, he was given to a monastery, who promptly made him a castrato. Now that seems a foolish thing indeed, as his eldest brother died in battle, and his second oldest seem to be getting sicker every passing day. His father being a well esteemed count, Caliban fetches quite a dowry, but personally he would rather have stayed with the monks. And any money coming his way, he would be happier giving to the poor. What others see as a loss, he consider a gift. He holds close ties to the Bishop, as well as his father's closest neighbor, the count of Hjeltrennd. However he has also captured the eye of a desire demon, who lusts to turn his chant into a siren's call.
Guzzy Thatcher
Age 26
Looks 2 (+1)
Wealth 5
Contacts 1
Fertile 7 (+1)
Scandalous, Admirable, Selfish
Guzzy is the oldest daughter of a thatcher in the hamlet of Grund, she might not be a beauty queen, but she's popular enough with the local farm hands. Mostly because she never says no, and she's allready amassed quite a number of illegitimate children despite her young age. Who are all being cared for by her mother, seeing as Guzzy couldn't care less about them. Despite all this, there's just something about her that makes her come out all the cleaner despite her actions, and many young girls have come to glorify her for some reason. Lately this has started to spread to other groupings as well, and it seems Guzzy can't do a thing wrong. Could this be the workings of some kind of fey sprite?
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? Responses (11)
There's some good stuff up there. It fills a gap.
Two thoughts:
(1) I feel like this should be focused on the Spousey elements of an NPC. There are already other NPC generators out there. Most DMs already have a favorite. I would focus on what a spouse generator can do that other random tables haven't already done. Looks and (especially) Fertility are off to a good start, but it'd be cool to see Love, Faithfulness, Cultural Similarity, Age Difference, mabye Family Cohesion, etc. Maybe you could wrangle stuff in there like Trust or Loyalty, but I'd rather just base on Love and Faithfulness.
(2) If a 6 in Fertility = a sure thing, that means that there are a lot of couples that don't have any kids. If this is pseudo-medieval setting, that's probably too low.
Cultural Similarity (d12): 1 = married a person from a far away place that doesn't even speak your language, 12 = married your cousin from across the street. Maybe 5/6 could be husband/wife marrying below their status.
I'd say Fertility (d10-2) = number of children a middle aged couple has had. A roll of 1 = one of them is barren, 2 = childless by choice. Modify by age category so that teenagers don't have 8 kids (although they could have, like, four? Maybe?) Adjust for childhood mortality if you want to be cynical.
I'd say Love (d8): 1 = outright hatred, 2 = dislike, 4/5 = Love is one-sided (Husband/wife), 7 = honeymoon phase, 8 marital bliss. Adjust for age, if you want to be cynical.
Faithfulness (d6): 4 = husband cheating, 5 = wife cheating, 6 = it's complicated.
Maybe add a roll for their history? Childhood sweethearts, former enemies, ridiculously long romance, eloped, fickle finances.
Ah, I'm rambling. Sorry. Will vote on this when I get home.
Well, you are free to add anything you like of course. I opted for keeping it simple though, like I said, it is meant as an auxillary Npc, and as such I didn't want to make it overly complicated. Loyalty though, is implied in one of the traits (Supporting), seeing as Scheming is the opposite. Faithfulness is also there in the traits. Things like cultural similarity and age difference are things I leave up to the DM to decide(I used about 8 different die to get a random age for the example Npcs I made up there).
Love is up for interpretation, does the Npc have a lot of negative traits, then that might imply that he/she is hard to live with. Then it's up to the significant other to decide whether this poses a real problem or not. For a noble, things like wealth and connections are usually more important than love. But obviously you might marry someone for their traits rather than the denominator values.
Regarding the fertility, the exact numbers aren't that important, it's up to you to interpret them as you wish. Just because someone has a low fertility doesn't mean they'll never conceive, and of course there might be various herbal or magical aides available to help with that. Which could prove excellent plot hooks. The same is true for unwanted pregnancies of course, and the various stigma possibly related to them.
Things like Childhood sweethearts and things sounds like it would fit better into the Npc History Generator. Since you have all these great ideas, feel free to go check that sub out and contribute a few ideas, I still need quite a few more events before I start on that one.
Thanks for the input.
I think Forganthus had the right of this. There a lot of NPC generators out there. This one lacks anything that makes it a true spouse generator in as much as it does not delve into the relationship of the couple. I see from your comment that you disagree with this, but perhaps you could reconsider his suggestions. But as NPC generators go this is just as good as any other. What does your wife or significant other think of this chart?
I just remembered, I did include the possibillity to include ancestral enemies in the contacts. But there's no roll to imply it, it just depends on what pops to mind for the DM. If you look at my idea scrolls, I based the characters on the denominators and traits, it is easy enough that one thing will lead to another from there.
I don't do tabletop gaming, so i wouldn't personally find much use in this. However, I can see it being a handy tool to generate some quick info for a minor npc. I like that the traits and such don't give a backstory, but rather provide a springboard for you to create your own quick backstory.
(e.g, okay, I rolled an 8 wealth and an 'adventurous' modifier! The spouse therefore can be an old, retired adventurer who has accumulated wealth and now has settled down. bam, 2 seconds, done!)
In regards to the fertility thing, i think it would 5% increment up to, say 50% chance to procreate a healthy child would be more than sufficient - if you take it on an intercourse-by-intercourse basis.
a 50% chance to impregnate is a VERY high chance :p and if it falls on the bad side of the dice, there are still things like miscarriage and such (A surprisingly common thing; about 20% chance in early days of pregnancy.).
But enough of that dreary subject!
A useful sub which doesn't give you all the backstory of a spouse, but rather inspires you to create your own!
Yeah, like I said; There are no hard numbers, it just points you in the right direction. I didn't research pregnancy or anything, but 50% sounds a bit low, maybe 60% for broad hips or something. :P That's a good example by the way, a high roll on fertility might imply a sturdier build more suited to child bearing, or it might imply that they've allready got kids. It is up for the DM's interpretation. Thanks for voting even though it wasn't really your kind of thing, Shadow. (Your cake is in the mail ;P).
3.5/5
Interesting generator. I can see this helping during detailed char-generation.