Campaign Concept: The Historian - Worldbuilding through solo play

Random tables for books in a library - great in concept, but rarely used in practice. Let's build a campaign around them so they finally get the table time they deserve.

"In the library" by Georg Reimer

Preface

The idea for this campaign concept came to me while I was flipping through my print-on-demand copy of dicegeek's The Great Book of Random Tables. The first 10 pages are random tables, simply made up of book titles and a gold value.

I tried to imagine a scenario where I would ever use these tables in one of my typical sessions, and I realized that they'd probably be never more than a tiny bit of flavor for random loot. Not satisfied with that conclusion, I started to tinker with a possible campaign that would heavily rely on "random books in xy" tables.

The basic premise would have to revolve around these randomized books. They should affect gameplay more than simply providing a short-lived "that's neat" moment, that randomized loot often provides. It also has to be coherent enough (within the confines of randomness) that an overarching story can develop.

In other words: The player character should have a goal or purpose other than simply browsing through bookshelves and seeing what they find.

"The Reading Room" by Johann Peter Hasenclever

The Concept

Have you ever read a novel or RPG book with short in-universe quotes at the start of chapters? Lore written from the perspective of a character within that setting? They are usually quotes from history books, prophecies, speeches, or other semi-relevant sources.

Your player character is writing one of these sources.

You play a historian that is working on their personal masterpiece. Whether it is a novel, scientific paper, poetry, speech, history book, or whatever else might fit into your setting of choice, your character needs to do a lot of research. That's where the random book tables come into play.

Before you start rolling, you should have a clear picture of the kind of work your character is trying to write. This heavily influences the lens through which you interpret the generated books. The clearer your starting concept, the easier it will be.

"Old Woman Reading" by Georg Gillis van Haanen

The Campaign Structure

I typically use the GEMulator if I want an overarching structure, but you don't need to use any actual mechanics if you prefer a more rules-lite procedure. Pretty much any GM emulator should be flexible enough to allow for this sort of campaign.

Now that you have a clear picture of your character's goal, you can start the first 'adventure' by randomly rolling/generating a book from the table of your choice. If you have several different tables to choose from, you might want to randomly determine which to use (see here).

"Reading" by Lilla Cabot Perry

The next big decision is how you want to play out the events of your generated book. Depending on the amount of detail your chosen random table provides, you might need to come up with additional context. Either make it up on the spot or use an oracle for inspiration. I use my own custom oracle sheet.

Once you have enough details to get a rough idea what the book is about, you can create the contents through solo play. Choose a fitting game and play through a short adventure like you usually would, although you should always keep the original intent of your character in mind. They would read the book with the goal of obtaining relevant information for their own work. Only focus on these parts of the book when you play through them. You might even want to let personal biases of your character influence the gameplay. Maybe they are working on a thinly veiled propaganda piece, and they want to interpret the book in a way that would fit their own ideology.

by Edwaert Collier

After the adventure, switch back to your historian character and imagine what kind of conclusions they would draw. How does it affect their work? Were their assumptions confirmed or questioned? Did they learn something new that questions previous results? Do they choose to ignore facts that don't support their argument?

I recommend that you play through at least 3 books to create the possibility of conflicting information, but you should always feel free to stop playing when it seems like the story has come to a natural conclusion. It probably doesn't make sense for your character to keep reading and reading, if everything has supported their argument again and again. Constantly conflicting information, on the other hand, could be a fascinating foundation for a longer campaign.

"The Writing Master" by Thomas Eakins

Ending the Campaign

Once your historian character has finished their work, you could just end the campaign right there. It might be more enjoyable though to see how the world around your PC reacts to their work.

Literary quality is subjective, and the public reception will determine your character's legacy.

by Benjamin-Eugène Fichel

Imagine an appropriate scenario where your character might present his work. It could be a scientific convention, a royal court, a political rally, a courtroom, a village meeting, a book club, a university exam, or whatever else might fit your setting of choice.

What would the average reaction be like? Is the topic polarizing and does it lead to extreme opinions? Does it fizzle out and barely generate any excitement? Some works could even be the inciting reason of a major event in your setting. Is your character happy with their work? Are any questions left unanswered?

"In the reading room" by Delphin Enjolras

Variations

Genre Neutral
I haven't talked about a specific setting or genre that this campaign would take place in, and that was on purpose. As long as your setting has written records of some kind, then the campaign concept will work. A medieval monk, a posh aristocrat, a modern professor, or a sci-fi historian exploring these events through simulations on a holodeck. Use whatever you find the most interesting. You could even experiment and replace the books with oral records like campfire stories.

"The Reading of a Firman" by Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps

Recurring NPCs
If you want to expand the world around your historian, then recurring side NPCs, with whom your PC can discuss their findings, are a perfect addition. A respected friend with an opposing viewpoint, or maybe an academic rival that tries to interfere in some way. Get creative, but be aware that this can easily run out of control and take over the entire campaign. That's obviously not a problem if you enjoy the process, but it wouldn't really be about the random book tables anymore.

Wargame Hybrid
The major conflicts of your setting will have countless books written about them, but large battles aren't really suited for most RPG rulesets. You might want to use a wargame instead. You don't need perfectly painted miniatures and terrain, either. Just use whatever you have to simulate the battle from the book and play out the result.

Example Random Book Tables

This is just an unsorted short list of examples from my own collection. I am sure that there are countless more out there, but I haven't yet taken the time to look for more.

• The Great Book of Random Tables by dicegeek
• Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition (Ch.11 Tomes of Eldritch Lore) by Chaosium
• The Dungeon Alphabet (B for Books) by Goodman Games
• (German) Aventurische Bibliothek by Ulisses Spiele
• (Online) Seventh Sanctum Book Generators
• (Online) Inkwell Ideas Book Title Generator