Taken from Arthur Asa Berger's introduction to Evan Esar's The Humor of Humor, he cites Dundes' description of Propp's fairytale morphology. That alone is a bit of a mind/mouthful, but here is the list:
01: Absentation -- One of the members of the family absents itself.
02: Interdiction -- Interdiction addressed to hero (can be reversed) [ed. note: interdiction is a prohibitive sanction. so a proper/religious punishment of some type]
03: Violation -- An interdiction is violated.
04: Reconnaissance -- The villain makes an attempt to gain information.
05: Delivery -- The villain gets information about [its] victim.
06: Trickery -- The villain tries to deceive [its] victim.
07: Complicity -- Victim is deceived.
08: Villainy -- Villain causes harm to a member of a family.
08a: Lack -- Member of family lacks something, desires something.
09: Meditation -- Misfortune made known. Hero dispatched.
10: Counteraction -- The hero agrees to counter action.
11: Departure -- The hero leaves home.
12: 1st Donor Function -- The hero tested, receives magical agent or helper.
13: Hero's Reaction -- The hero reacts to agent or donor.
14: Receipt of Agent -- The hero acquires use of magical agent.
15: Spatial Change -- The hero led to object of search.
16: Struggle -- The hero and villain join in direct combat.
17: Branding -- The hero is branded.
18: Victory -- The villain is defeated.
19: Liquidation -- Initial misfortune or lack is liquidated.
20: Return -- The hero returns.
21: Pursuit, Chase -- The hero is pursued.
22: Rescue -- The hero rescued from pursuit.
23: Unrecognized Arrival -- The hero, unrecognized, arrives home or elsewhere.
24: Unfounded Claims -- A false hero presents unfounded claims.
25: Difficult Task -- A difficult task is proposed to the hero.
26: Solution -- The task is resolved.
27: Recognition -- The hero is recognized.
28: Exposure -- The false hero or villain is exposed.
29: Transfiguration -- The hero is given a new apprentice.
30: Punishment -- The villain is punished.
31: Wedding -- The hero is married, ascends the throne.
Now, this is 31 (or 32) different items, which is quite a lot. And many of them are kind of weird. To me, though it screams to be used in some RPG. My thought? Replace "hero" with "party" and then use this table (either randomly, or not) in order to determine the dramatic function of any given random encounter on a hex map. This way, you can take either random or pre-determined logistic details (objects, rooms, monsters, what-not) and bend them toward a certain dramatic end. The only problem being that the above list is a) too long, and b) some of the entries describe what the hero does...which is tough, since you don't control your PCs. So if we re-do our list a bit:
What's the Point of this Encounter?
01: Absentation -- [An NPC] absents itself.
02: Interdiction -- Interdiction addressed to hero (can be reversed) [ed. note: interdiction is a prohibitive sanction. so a proper/religious punishment of some type]
03: Violation -- An interdiction is violated.
04: Reconnaissance -- The villain makes an attempt to gain information.
05: Trickery -- The villain tries to deceive [its] victim.
06: Villainy -- Villain causes harm to a member of a family.
07: Meditation -- Misfortune made known. Hero dispatched.
08: 1st Donor Function -- The hero tested, receives magical agent or helper.
09: Receipt of Agent -- The hero acquires use of magical agent.
10: Spatial Change -- The hero led to object of search.
11: Struggle -- The hero and villain join in direct combat.
12: Branding -- The hero is branded.
13: Liquidation -- Initial misfortune or lack is liquidated.
14: Pursuit, Chase -- The hero is pursued.
15: Unrecognized Arrival -- The hero, unrecognized, arrives home or elsewhere.
16: Unfounded Claims -- A false hero presents unfounded claims.
17: Difficult Task -- A difficult task is proposed to the hero.
18: Recognition -- The hero is recognized.
19: Transfiguration -- The hero is given a new apprentice.
20: Roll Twice.
So, for instance, if 3 PCs are wandering through the wilderness...and I roll on the Whimsical Encounters Table from the d30 Concordance...I get: "18. A tiny chessboard with pieces that move on their own performing battles when capturing. It vanishes when the game is done or the pieces removed." Now I roll on my dramatic action table: I get 04: Reconnaissance. Okay, the chessboard has been left there and enchanted by the main villain. If the game is played to completion, the bad guy dispatches attackers next hex...if the PCs sniff it out, they can reverse engineer it in to gaining info on the villain. OR if instead I get 03: Violation...then the chessboard is holy, and never to be played. A set of pilgrims crest the hill just before the PCs can win, and gasp in horror. They run to tell the nearby settlement of the PCs blasphemy. If the PCs do win, and the board disappears, they will be blamed and hunted by the religious townsfolk. Etc. Etc.
All that being said, I think this needs trimming/updating. Thoughts?
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