d666 Tables for Triangle Agency
I have been running a fabulous game of Triangle Agency for three Agents1 over the past several months, and it's rocketed to the top of my list of favorite games2 in the mean time. At the same time, I've been getting involved in reading through and considering the OSR blogosphere and what that ecosystem can offer for games that are not evidently in this milieu. I spent my entire Memorial Day yesterday reading through mindstorm's highlights, and I decided to write up a d666 table for Triangle Agency, viewable in Google Sheets form here. There are some spoilers in this document, so I'd advise only GMs or Agents who have, against the Agency's wishes3, progressed quite a bit down the Anomaly track.
The d666 table and world anchors are great tools for helping you avoid first-thought-only-thought situations - I'd suggest you read both articles first. I often find myself reaching for the same themes and ideas when prepping my Missions, so I wanted to develop tools that would help me avoid that mental trap.
The point of this table is to (per Whitehack) provide some input randomness. By this, I mean that spending some time creating a structured random table before I use it is very useful in generating ideas! The process of doing this involved the following steps:
- Decide who the factions would be that would theme each table.
- Decide the categories for each faction. This was hard, but I'm happy with the results! "Materials and Objects" and "Symbols and Motifs" ended up being vague catchalls, but I think that's okay.
- Fill in the table! This took me probably around an hour.
I've started to use it when brainstorming my current mission, but to avoid spoilers for my players, let's use it now to demonstrate what this might look like if I was dreaming up a brand-new mission. Per BAATAG's article, since I have no idea where to start, I'll roll on the table 3 times and see where it takes me. I usually use the dice in this order: Faction -> Table -> Specific Entry.
- Research (4 4 1), Technology (5 4 6), Advantage (4 3 4). Immediately, I'm struck by how this actually suggests a Market Disruption mission. A local company is developing Anomalous technology perhaps?
- Advantage (4 3 4), Field Agent (1 2 3), Industry (4 6 2). Hmm. It's strange that I rolled Advantage again, but this combination suggests to me that the source of the Advantage is a captured Field Agent being used for an industrial process. Let's roll just twice to see what that industry might be.
- Romance (6 6 3), Pleasure (3 3 3). Hm. Interpreting this broadly, I'm going to choose to avoid any lewd interpretations but interpret "Romance" as an artistic movement. Perhaps an art supply company that provides luxury paints could fit the bill here! I wonder what sort of Agent might be useful to them?
- Triangles (1 6 1), Belonging (6 3 4). Interesting. Triangles + Belonging suggests an Agent who is committed to the Agency's cause deeply, but doesn't give a good hint as to what their Anomaly might be. However, a trapped Whisper who can make people feel a certain way seems like a logical fit.
You can see that I took some liberty with how I interpreted these prompts - that's the point! It was super easy to do, though, and I'd recommend you try something similar yourself. I don't think I would have gone in these directions without the prompts and I'm already starting to imagine what this Mission might be like.
I will also probably publish my time-tracking procedures for Triangle Agency soon, but I only have so much time today and I want to give that the writing time it deserves. Let me know if you use this! I'm easily findable on the Haunted Table Discord as Noel.
Currently, we have a struggling gravedigger who has summoned an evil clone on more than one occasion, the leader of a campus RPG club who uses speedrun shortcuts in the real world, and a Bertie Wooster analogue who can stop time. Our squid who could walk through walls has already REDACTED.↩
Other notable games in this category are Stonetop and Blades in the Dark, in case you were wondering. So, Triangle Agency is in great company!↩
Marsh and Evan, you have my permission. Claudia, take a demerit if you do!↩