[eTools] How would I create this table?

[MythosaAkira]

I've been trying to figure out how to do some simple tables in eTools, but I'm not sure if I'm just missing something or if the table editor simply doesn't capable of doing what I'd trying to do.

Here's a very simple table I put together in TableSmith; it's actually a stripped-down version of a table that's simple to begin with, for generating the names of Orc Tribes:

:Start
1,[Adj] [Noun]

;Adj
1,black
1,red
1,green
1,blue
1,yellow
2,bleeding
2,bloody
2,cracked
2,crooked
2,dead
2,dripping
2,flaming
2,jagged
2,rotting
1,dark
1,shadow
1,death

;Noun
3,tongue
3,eye
3,claw
3,fang
3,skull
3,bone
3,tooth
3,fist
3,talon
2,axe
2,knife
2,blade
2,spear
2,moon
2,rock
2,cave
1,rat
1,snake
1,wolf

The line in the "Start" group says "Grab something from the 'Adj' group, grab something from the 'Noun' group, and display them (with a space between)". The numbers on each line for each group are relative odds; in 'Noun', for instance, the entries with "3" are three times more likely to be generated than the entries with "1".

A sample run of 5 'rolls' in TS is shown below:

cracked cave

bloody fang

blue axe

yellow skull

green claw


I know that eTools can have text entries, and I know you can call other tables from a single table. So, to do the above, I'm assuming I'd have to have at least three tables - one for 'Adj', one for 'Noun', and one to call 'Adj' and 'Noun'. After that, my questions arise:

- It looks like the only ranges you can roll on a table are based on standard dice: d4, d20, d100, etc. If you have a table that has, say, 17 entries, and you want each entry to have an equal chance of coming up, is there a direct way to do this? I realize there are any number of workarounds to do this; my question is whether there is a way to roll a "non-standard" die - a d17, a d34, etc. I know you can add a modifier to your roll, but that would weight the results, depending on how you did it.

- Is there any way to have results from multiple tables displayed on the same line? In the above example, I know I can get a result that looks like this:

yellow (1)
skull (1)

but how can I get something like:

yellow skull

- Last question: You can specify ranges and values for each entry, but can you specify weight? For instance, the first five entries in 'Adj' above, as far as I can tell, would have to be represented in eTools like so:

1 black
2 red
3 green
4 blue
5 yellow

If I wanted 'black' to be '1-2' instead of just '1', is there an easier way to do this other than having to re-number each entry?

This isn't a criticism of eTools; I'm simply curious to find out if I'm missing something or doing something wrong.

Thanks,

 

[Therigwin]

I've been trying to figure out how to do some simple tables in eTools, but I'm not sure if I'm just missing something or if the table editor simply doesn't capable of doing what I'd trying to do.
- It looks like the only ranges you can roll on a table are based on standard dice: d4, d20, d100, etc. If you have a table that has, say, 17 entries, and you want each entry to have an equal chance of coming up, is there a direct way to do this? I realize there are any number of workarounds to do this; my question is whether there is a way to roll a "non-standard" die - a d17, a d34, etc. I know you can add a modifier to your roll, but that would weight the results, depending on how you did it.

There is no way to do non-standard rolls.
You can do this -
Create the table and save it.
Exit the table and then reopen the table.
Now using your example of a d17, entries 1 - 17 are all one entry.
Then setup a range entry of 18 - 20, have it call a table object and have it point back to itself. That way it will keep on calling itself until it gets a value between 1 to 17.

- Is there any way to have results from multiple tables displayed on the same line? In the above example, I know I can get a result that looks like this:

yellow (1)
skull (1)

but how can I get something like:

yellow skull

Yes. You need to modify the Table.xls in the XML\Table folder. All eTools outputs are based on XLS sheets, so just modify that and you are all set. (make sure you backup the original)

- Last question: You can specify ranges and values for each entry, but can you specify weight? For instance, the first five entries in 'Adj' above, as far as I can tell, would have to be represented in eTools like so:

1 black
2 red
3 green
4 blue
5 yellow

If I wanted 'black' to be '1-2' instead of just '1', is there an easier way to do this other than having to re-number each entry?

Not sure what you are asking here.
You can setup ranges, like 1-2 or 3-5, etc for each entry, but you need to change each entry.
This is because you can set a table up like this -
1-2 black
2-3 red
3-4 green
4-5 blue
5-6 yellow

If you get a 1 or a 6, you just get the one result, either black or yellow. If you get any other number, you get both results.

Look at the example tables that eTools came with, they are very helpful. Also take a look at the Hero Builder's Guidebook Personal History tables I made - this shows the nesting, recalling of a table, etc. It is available on the eTools repository, msn eTools group and the files section over at Fluid.

Hope this helpped.

 

[Sm!rk]

I've never used tablesmith so I can't comment on what it is actually doing when you state something is 3 times more likely to appear. But in the D&D world this is all done by dice, naturally.

So if red is 3 times more likely to come up that say 3 other colors then you'll have something like this
1 yellow
2 black
3 orange
4-6 red

What Therig said about rerolling on the same table will work but the number 17 is wrong for the adjective table because some of those are 2 times more likely to come up, I count 26 instead.

As to suggested methods of getting it to work, here is what I would do for that table.
- Remove blue, then you have 25 numbers to worry about.
- Make your table roll 1d100.

Then here is your table:
1-4,black
5-8,red
9-12,green
13-16,yellow

** moved from the bottom to make the math easier
17-20,dark
21-24,shadow
25-28,death

29-36,bleeding
37-44,bloody
45-52,cracked
53-60,crooked
61-68,dead
69-76,dripping
77-84,flaming
85-92,jagged
93-100,rotting


The 1s from before all have a 4% chance of appearing on a d100, the 2s have a 8% chance of appearing, this balances.

You would then do the same for the noun table, I usually use d100 since it makes my math simpler. Then your main table will have something like this
1 adjective table
2 noun table




There doesn't appear to be an easier way, you will have to renumber them anyway since your output isn't numbered at all. I suspect from what you posted that tablesmith does some automatic building for these tables. Whereas I can only guess but etools does it that way so that you can print out your tables in a method that can be used at the table. In other words it doesn't require you to be running it on a laptop to be useful. Which I personally find useful, but YMMV.

Etools also doesn't appear to concatenate words at all, I noticed this when playing with the random name table that someone from Fluid built and posted on their boards. Maybe they'll add this, I recall this being mentioned there, but am not sure in what context.