What’s behind this door? Tables for your RPG

Sometimes when running an adventure your players veer a little off course. Okay sometimes they veer way off course. Thinking on your feet and coming up with ideas quick is a very useful skill, but sometimes you need a little help building a manor fast, coming up with a reason for the next dungeon room or just keeping things different.

The first list are simply types of rooms you might find in a large home, lair, fortress or complex. If the result does not make sense for your current location, you can roll again, but sometimes the fun is coming up with an explanation to why this odd room is present. Your players will often do the same. Feel free to accept whatever theory you like best.

The second list is of specific objects, events or environmental effects you might find in a room. Most of these are purposefully a little odd or curious. Use them for red herrings, on the fly plot hooks, or just to keep things interested.

Big List of Rooms

1. Ready Room
2. Foyer
3. Closet
4. Armory
5. Abattoir
6. Lavatory
7. Laboratory
8. Forge
9. Catacombs/Crypt
10. Master Bedroom
11. Sleeping Chambers
12. Barracks
13. Training Ground
14. Treasure Room
15. Prison Cell
16. Torture Chamber
17. Kitchen
18. Circle of Evil
19. Arcane Testing Chamber
20. Study
21. Library
22. Guard Room
23. Tower
24. Fletcher
25. Jeweler
26. Storehouse
27. Tannery
28. Food Pens
29. Great Hall
30. Throne Room
31. Meeting Area
32. Portal Room
33. Fungus Growing Room
34. Empty Room
35. Clothier
36. Maid’s Chambers
37. Water Supply (well, stream access, etc)
38. Little Hall
39. Confectionery
40. Ball Pitt
41. Sewer
42. Larder
43. Food Service/Lounge
44. Room Under Construction
45. Temple/Chapel
46. Sacrifice Chambers
47. Room full of statues that speak in riddle
48. Amphitheater
49. Waiting Room
50. Stables
51. Docks
52. Stairwell
53. Wine Cellar
54. Office
55. Dressing Room
56. Tinkerer Workshop
57. Gallery
58. Galley
59. Greenhouse
60. War Room

Big List of Room Features

1. The floor slopes down to a drain in one corner of the room.
2. Orange curtains
3. Strange Draft
4. Window with a wall behind it
5. Knuckle bone from a human on the floor
6. Loose rock in the threshold
7. Stained glass windows
8. Large animal droppings
9. Central Fire Pit
10. Expensive Looking Chairs
11. Bottle of Cheap Perfume
12. Sports a collection of Wigs
13. Series of numbers written in the wall in draconic
14. Smells of horses
15. Open Book
16. Candles still burning
17. Smells of Roses
18. Strangely Cold
19. Glowing moss
20. Contains various shapes not square or round
21. Odd death related paintings
22. Wind chimes made of marrowless human finger bones.
23. Small domestic animal
24. A thick layer of dust, recently disturbed.
25. Walls, floor, and ceiling all covered with one particular shade of paint.
26. Manacles and chains
27. Indecipherable whispering
28. Distant muffled noises
29. The sound of a girl crying
30. Temperature change with no obvious source.
31. A rack of exotic weapons
32. A burnt book.
33. A trapped creature.
34. Scattered rat droppings
35. An odd bit of slime on one wall
36. A nail attached to the wall with Sovereign Glue.
37. An opening in the floor leads to darkness
38. An opening in the floor leads to lava
39. An opening in the wall that opens onto an opening in the opposite wall. You see the back of your head.
40. A grate
41. Arrowheads
42. A fake tiara
43. A bag of women’s laundry
44. A plate of cheese and bread, gone stale
45. A keg of dwarven ale
46. A small shiny disc, made of something light and hard, but not metal
47. Potted vegetables
48. A framed portrait of the current local ruler
49. Carvings on the wall
50. Tribal symbols
51. A bust of a saint
52. A family tree tapestry
53. A sword embedded in the floor/wall.
54. Filled with insects
55. Holy Symbols
56. An animal carved of marble
57. A painted underwater scene on one wall
58. Star chart of ceiling
59. Sleeping child
60. Fresh Paint

What do you think is missing from our lists?