Need a side quest for your PCs or just looking for some tavern rumors and local tittle-tattle to occupy them for a while or throw them off the scent? Then look no further than our random rumor table!
 
Roll D100 and divide the answer by 2 and round up to see which rumors are currently doing the rounds.
 
1. The local tavern are watering down their beer… and not with water
2. There is a pig in the village that will grant a wish if you pat its head
3. The local priest is secretly a necromancer
4. There is a house in town that is an empty shell hiding a portal to another dimension… but no one knows which one it is
5. There are birds in the forest that have feathers of gold
6. One of the noble families are actually demons in disguise
7. Trolls have intestines made of silver
8. There is a tree in the forest that acts as a secret entrance to the faerie world
9. A famous group of bandits buried all their loot outside of town just before they were caught and put to death. No one has ever found it.
10. The local mages guild have made a fortune catching and selling slaves using their magics
11. A local man went missing for three days and has reappeared with no idea of where he has been
12. A huge monster lives in the catacombs beneath the castle
13. A group of bandits are living in the woods nearby and planning to sack the village
14. The blacksmith is having an affair
15. The local carpenter has learnt a little magic and has placed listening spells on all of the furniture he sells.
16. A local woman is regularly beaten by her husband
17. There was an accident at the fighters guild which resulted in the death of a member but it has been hushed up and those responsible will never be held to account
18. A mermaid has been spotted in the local waters
19. Every year on the first full moon someone disappears and is never seen again
20. The butcher is actually the illegitimate son of the king
21. There is a small town just across the mountains populated entirely by children. They overthrew the adults and send anyone who turns 21 into exile
22. People who enter the haunted woods say they can hear beautiful singing but no one has ever found the source
23. The farmer is working with a young magic user to create bigger and tastier animals but keeps his experiments locked away underground
24. The local pond is filled with dead bodies who will drown anyone who attempts to swim in it
25. The local merchant has rigged his scales so as to rip people off and make more money for himself
26. The childless nobles actually have a son but he was born a deformed monster and keep him in the dungeon.
27. If you eat enough of the local farm’s chicken, you will grow wings
28. A local boy found a powerful magic artefact but won’t tell anyone where he has hidden it
29. The archmage keeps powerful amulets hidden in his beard
30. The big tree in the middle of the forest is home to all kinds of horrible monsters
31. Someone has stolen all the necromancy books from the mage’s library
32. The local priest is a cannibal
33. A young boy fell down the well 100 years ago and if you listen carefully, you can still hear him moaning
34. The assassins guild have never actually killed anyone
35. This village is just an illusion cast by a powerful magician who is keeping us all captive
36. The noble’s daughter arranged to be kidnapped by goblins to get her hands on his money that would otherwise have gone to her feckless brother
37. The pies at the local inn have rat, mouse and anything else they find in the street in them
38. The local blacksmith used to be a champion jouster but quit after the scandal
39. There is a ghost that haunts the local churchyard
40. The huge forest on the edge of town wasn’t there 100 years ago
41. The homeless beggar used to be a hero of great repute that disobeyed the king
42. There is a hidden door at the bottom of the lake which leads to the temple holding the lost dwarven treasure
43. There is an owl in the forest that used to be a man and begs passers-by for help
44. The beer served at the local tavern is the best there is
45. The people that live on the corner are hiding a deep dark secret
46. If you stand on the bank of the swamp and repeat the word ‘hate’ five times, a demon will rise from the swamp’s depth and devour your enemies
47. If you cross the bridge carrying food, you have to throw some over the side otherwise a family of trolls will descend on you and eat you
48. The priest places large stones on top of the coffins he buries as the dead have a terrible habit of rising
49. The local undertakers will poison people during slow periods to make a bit more money
50. The captain of the guard can see in the dark
 

One of the best things about tabletop RPGs is the fact that anyone can play. All you need is a pen, paper and your imagination (well… at least one of you also needs to have the rulebook as well). However, there are a lot of tools on offer which can enhance or simplify game play without destroying the essence of role playing. With that in mind we thought we’d ask our fans and followers which tools they used and how effective they thought they were.
 
One thing that is interesting but probably unsurprising is how few people use electronic devices or aids in their gaming. While 65% of people used miniatures only 46% use word processors with even fewer using tablets (37%) and online tabletop platforms (35%). Perhaps people find the use of devices distracting or an unnecessary hassle given that long term players have grown up without any of these aids. It would perhaps have been interesting to have asked for respondents ages to see if younger players are more open / rely more heavily on electronic aids.
 
According to the survey results, the one tool that people should be using more often is graph paper. Only 47% of people said that they used graph paper and yet it ranked second in the list of most useful tools (with a score of 3.29 out of 5).
 
The greatest surprise for me was how often people try new RPG tools. I suspected that players and GMs would be very set in their ways and would rarely try new things. However, 26% of respondents said that they tried out new tools often or all the time and 44% said that they tried out new RPG tools ‘sometimes’.
 
We had some great responses to ‘what would your perfect RPG tool look like’ including “None. Pen and paper work just fine”, “A speech recognition combat helper” and “A system that records video and audio of all sessions, and uses that to create (in real-time / constantly) an interactive text document with all that happened, with easy search tools”.
 
Thanks to everyone who took part in the survey. If you’d like to give your opinion on the findings or to continue the discussion, please visit our forum.
 
Below are the results in full, do you agree? Are there any tools that you would like to see?
 
 
Which of the following do you use when playing tabletop RPGs?
 
Miniatures – 64.91%
Background music – 50.88%
Graph paper – 47.37%
Word processors – 45.61%
Dry erase boards – 45.61%
Tablets – 36.84%
Spreadsheets – 36.84%
Online tabletop platforms – 35.09%
Official e-support packages – 28.07%
Other apps – 28.07%
3rd party e-support – 19.30%
Sound effects – 17.54%
Forums – 12.28%
Projectors – 7.02%
 
How useful would you say the following tools are when playing tabletop RPGs?
 
Miniatures – 3.50
Graph paper – 3.29
Word processors – 3.16
Spreadsheets – 3.04
Dry erase boards – 3.00
Official e-support packages – 2.84
Tablets – 2.83
Background music – 2.81
Other apps – 2.73
Online tabletop platforms – 2.63
3rd party e-support – 2.40
Sound effects – 1.98
Projectors – 1.73
 
How often do you try new tools?
 
Never – 1.75%
Rarely – 28.07%
Sometimes – 43.86%
Often – 22.81%
All the time 3.51%
 
In a perfect world what tools would you like?
 
A computer based Campaign manager/combat tracker with searchable ruleset in one application
 
Something like Realm Works but with these added options: A game calendar where you can set the calendar up much like in Aeon Timeline, and an “individual” player reveal state. It would awesome if there was also an integrated VTT program like Mote or Maptools.
 
None. Pen and paper work just fine.
 
Rulesets for Fantasy Grounds is the big one. Also like art/maps to show the players. Everything else I can easily do with Excel/Word
 
Mobile apps for Character sheets
 
Software that allows .mp3 files to be accessed via assigned hot keys so background music and effects files can be played and mixed simultaneously. Software and/or spreadsheet that generates NPCs quickly would be great for random encounters that need a touch of detail
 
A well done master screen
 
A speech recognition combat helper!
 
Something like Fantasy Grounds, but with Realm works campaign management….
 
Combat tracking is still priority #1!
 
AI powered 3d visualisers that know what I mean, not what I say.
 
A system that records video and audio of all sessions, and uses that to create (in real-time / constantly) an interactive text document with all that happened, with easy search tools (who said what, which player requests to the GM are still pending, etc).
 
Table size tablet with a program for mapping, spreadsheets etc.
 
I would love to see the John dale rmfrp character sheet integrated with the roll 20 system.
 
A well thought out and designed character sheet. Most waste space with logos and dark background art.
 
I have seen someone use a Wii remote to recognize miniatures on the table and show movement ranges and area affects. Something like that would be great if I didn’t have to build it myself.