Whenever I’m writing a hex crawl and I it’s time to describe some royal ugly dude’s throne, I have to take a pause. How do I make this interesting? In literary terms, the throne is an extension of the person sitting on it – and in game terms, thrones are one of those things that players should remember – they give an encounter a bit of color and flash – something to fire the imagination.

With that in mind, I present a few tables for randomly generating hopefully interesting thrones.

First things first, you need to know whose butt is going to be planted in it, because their rank will provide a modifier (or no modifier) to the dice rolls:

Knight/Baron: +0
Viscount/Count: +5
Duke: +10
Grand Duke/Prince: +15
King/Queen: +20
Pope/Emperor: +25

For monster monarchs, let their hit dice be your guide:

0 to 5 HD: +0
6 to 9 HD: +5
10 to 14 HD: +10
15 to 19 HD: +20
20+ HD: +25

THRONE MATERIAL (D%)

01-010 – Pine*
11-17 – Elm*
18-24 – Maple
25-31 – Cedar
32-38 – Oak
39-45 – Walnut
46-52 – Cherry
53-59 – Teak
60-64 – Limestone (or granite or basalt)
65-69 – Bone (re-roll if this is too bad ass for you)
70-74 – Iron/Steel (re-roll if this is too metal for you)
75-79 – Kingwood
80-84 – Tulipwood
85-89 – Ebony
90-94 – Blackwood
95-99 – Marble
100-104 – Porphyry
105-109 – Malachite
110-116 – Brass
117-120 – Silver
121-122 – Gold
123 – Platinum
124 – Mithril
125 – Adamantine

* 10% chance that the wood is covered by silver foil or gold leaf

ORNAMENTS (D%)

01-08 – None
09-16 – Carvings (animals, plants, monsters, geometric designs, etc.)
17-23 – Feathers (peacock, griffon, roc, angel, etc.)
24-30 – Fixtures, brass (knobs, spikes, figurines, medallions)
31-36 – Fixtures, silver
37-43 – Inlay, wood (rosewood, zebrawood, holly, cocobo, ziricote, blackwood, ebony, kingwood)
44-48 – Inlay, shells
49-55 – Pillows of silk
56-60 – Pillows of velvet
61-65 – Pillows of damask
66-70 – Inlay, alabaster
71-75 – Inlay, ivory or tusks (elephant, narwhal, catoblepas)
76-79 – Inlay, mother-of-pearl
80-85 – Pietra dure – marble
86-90 – Pillows of leather (monster hide)
91-94 – Fixtures, gold
95-98 – Fixtures, platinum
99-103 – Pietra dure – fancy stones (see Blood & Treasure)
104-106 – Fixtures, mithril
107-109 – Fixtures, adamantine
110 – 114 – Slaves (servants, dancers, musicians) – chained to throne
115-118 – Guard animals (wolves, cheetahs, lions, tigers) – chained to throne
119-122 – Gems (1d12; see Blood & Treasure)
123-125 – Jewels (1d12; see Blood & Treasure)

FOUNDATION (D%)

There is a 1 in 4 chance of the throne being situated on an interesting foundation

01-50 – Dais (1d4+1 steps)
51-75 – Moat – water
76-85 – Moat – perfumed water
86-95 – Moat – wine
96-99 – Moat – flaming oil
100-109 – Statue (i.e. throne atop a statue of a bearer, either an animal or people)
110-114 – Monster (throne actually on the back of a large, subdued monster)
115-125 – Slaves (throne on the back of human or demi-human or non-human slaves)

SPECIAL POWERS (D%)

Chance of special powers equal to 1 + rank modifier on percentile dice

01-06 – Augury (1/day)
07-12 – Charm person (1/day)
13-18 – Command (1/day)
19-27 – Detect evil or good (1/day)
28-33 – ESP (1/day)
34-37 – Summon monster III (1/day)
38-40 – Summon monster IV (1/day)
41-42 – Summon monster V (1/day)
43-46 – Augury (3/day)
47-50 – Charm person (3/day)
51-53 – Command (3/day)
54-58 – Detect evil or good (3/day)
59-62 – Break enchantment (1/day)
63-66 – Cure disease (1/day)
67-70 – Divination (1/day)
71-74 – Remove curse (1/day)
75-78 – ESP (3/day)
79-84 – Magic resistance 5%
85-87 – Detect evil or good (at will)
88-90 – ESP (at will)
91-94 – Magic resistance 10%
95-96 – Contact other plane (1/week)
97-98 – Gate (1/week)
99-101 – Protection from evil or good (constant)
102-104 – See invisibility (constant)
105-106 – Tongues (constant)
107-108 – True seeing (constant)
109-110 – Control weather (1/day)
111-112 – Flame strike (1/day)
113-114 – Insect plague (1/day)
115-116 – Lightning bolt (1/day)
117-118 – Slow (1/day)
119-120 – Magic resistance 20%
121-122 – Summon Monster VI (1/day)
123-124 – Summon Monster VII (1/day)
125 – Wish (1/lifetime)