Harlot Table - Was it REALLY in D&D??

[Mikaela Barree]

Hey!

Apologies if this has been asked before.

I recently was linked to the Vice article about female gamers, which referenced a "random harlot encounters" table that was supposedly in the first edition of D&D, put there by Gary Gygax. My friend maintains that the table was actually from FATAL (which... wouldn't be any surprise, really).

Vice has sometimes been a bit lax in their fact-checking for online articles. I figured someone here would know the answer... was that table REALLY in D&D? I'm reserving judgement either way, but I figured that knowing the truth is better than not.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

It was in the AD&D DMG along with tables for every other kind of random person you might meet in a village or a city. Those random tables were some of the best things in that entire edition. To an outsider it it probably looks bizarre, but it was actually a real fantastic way to spark some interesting interactions in the game.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

You can see what it looked like here. Gygax's love of the thesaurus knew no bounds.

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2008/06/the_12_harlots_of_the_dungeons_dragons_random_harl.php

 

[Raith5]

Hey!

Apologies if this has been asked before.

I recently was linked to the Vice article about female gamers, which referenced a "random harlot encounters" table that was supposedly in the first edition of D&D, put there by Gary Gygax. My friend maintains that the table was actually from FATAL (which... wouldn't be any surprise, really).

Vice has sometimes been a bit lax in their fact-checking for online articles. I figured someone here would know the answer... was that table REALLY in D&D? I'm reserving judgement either way, but I figured that knowing the truth is better than not.

Yep page 192 of the First Edition DMG. There were tables for everything in first ed.

 

[Mikaela Barree]

The Myopic Sniper

It was in the AD&D DMG along with tables for every other kind of random person you might meet in a village or a city. Those random tables were some of the best things in that entire edition. To an outsider it it probably looks bizarre, but it was actually a real fantastic way to spark some interesting interactions in the game.​

Okay, put in a context like that, it seems a bit less outlandish! The way it's been portrayed seemed to be like it was adjoining random monster encounter tables .
​

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Okay, put in a context like that, it seems a bit less outlandish! The way it's been portrayed seemed to be like it was adjoining random monster encounter tables .
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It was adjoining the random monster encounter tables for city encounters.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

The giant rats, vampires and werewolves were always a nice diversion when you ran into a city laid out this way, but as a DM giving the players a chance to run into corrupt city guards, press gangs, a band of drunks coming out of a tavern looking for a fight or a disgraced noble trying to keep her identity secret provided some of my most memorable D&D experiences.

If players run into a group of bandits harassing them outside a dungeon, that usually meant dead bandits: a group of rakes intimidating a streetwalker in the town square required a whole different level of consideration and were great spontaneous story hooks.

 

[trancejeremy]

It's funny how prudish we are today that the mention of prostitution is somehow seen as shocking and alarming.

 

[mach1.9pants]

The oldest profession is legal here, so we aren't so prudish as other countries around. The random harlot table would be fine in 2014 NZ... apart from the fact it is awfully stereotyped. As much as I love that table for it's idiosyncratic awesomeness of the old school, it would require a lot of modification of terms to be acceptable today!

 

[Morrus]

Here you go. Proof!