226 - random life tables 🎲🎲🎲
Hey there, !
I'm planning some of my D&D campaigns and one of the central systems is around dice-rolling.
One of the things that you do when you want to do a cartwheel, or climb a tree, or intimidate someone, or be stealthy, or really anything (DND is really fun guys), the Dungeon Master (DM) calls for a roll of a dice (usually a 20-sided dice called a d20). They determine a threshold in their head; if the number gets above it then the player succeeds, otherwise, they fail.
It's supposed to mimic real life - sometimes things work, sometimes they don't. I have thoughts on this but we'll save it for another time.
One of the other concepts they have are character, or encounter tables, where the DM can roll and it helps them make random characters / encounters:
These help because then you aren't faced with a blank page to come up with something new - you work with what you're given (constraints), and adapt to the weird and wonderful things that random dice might throw at you.
Now, in my travels of behavioural economics and decision science, I feel like it's difficult for a lot of people to make decisions about things, and I wondered whether it would be useful to create some of these types of tables for real life!
So I did it. Here are a few below:
Note: I made these for d6's rather than d20's because I assume, unless you're into dnd, you probably don't have d20 :D
So here we go:
- The 'Choose a Restaurant to Go To' table
| Dice roll | Cuisine |
|---|---|
| 1 | Something noodle-y |
| 2 | Something fried and greasy |
| 3 | Something clean |
| 4 | Something soup-y |
| 5 | Something comforting and wholesome |
| 6 | Something fancy |
- The 'What do we watch on TV?' table
| Dice roll | What to watch |
|---|---|
| 1 | A new movie that's come out |
| 2 | An old classic sitcom |
| 3 | Anime / cartoon |
| 4 | A documentary (preferably David Attenborough) |
| 5 | Reality TV |
| 6 | Something scary, or romantic |
- The 'What exercise to do at my desk?' table
| Dice roll | Exercise to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | 10 pushups |
| 2 | 30 lunges |
| 3 | 15 squats |
| 4 | 1 min plank |
| 5 | 30 sec wall sit |
| 6 | BIG STRETCHES (like a cat) |
- The 'Wellness and wellbeing' table
| Dice roll | What to watch |
|---|---|
| 1 | Call / set up time with a friend |
| 2 | Read a book |
| 3 | Sleep |
| 4 | Digital detox |
| 5 | Meditate |
| 6 | Fry your mind with social media |
- The 'Should I reinstall Hinge?' table
| Dice roll | What to watch |
|---|---|
| 1 | No |
| 2 | No |
| 3 | No |
| 4 | No |
| 5 | No |
| 6 | Hell yeah |
Chat soon :)
Let me know if you have any feedback for the newsletter!
P.S. I asked chatGPT and this was one of its options:
Relationship Decision Table:
- Communicate openly with your partner about concerns.
- Seek couples counseling or therapy.
- Plan a special date night to rekindle romance.
- Take time for self-reflection and assess your needs.
- Consider a temporary separation to gain clarity.
- Make a concerted effort to strengthen communication and emotional connection.
Imagine rolling on a life decision table for something like this YIKES, "Sorry babe, the dice said we should consider a temporary separation to gain clarity". Oof oof oof.
✔️Real Life Recommendations
- Namoo Japanese Cafe - shieeeet it's so good. It's a curry and cream udon that you can get near the Rialto, or on Queen St (I went to the one near the Rialto). It's oozin' with flavour and a really nice meal for lunch in the city - it's near the Southern Cross side of town though so you gotta be out there for it. But it slaps! Highly recommended.
- Lovey Patisserie Cafe - it's highly cute and right next door to Westfield Shoppingtown - didn't know it was a place but it has some cute cakes! A friend brought them over and shared a few - lovely pandan, a strawberry cream cake and a boba one. So interesting, so yum - recommended :)
🚌 Adventures on the Information Super-Highway
- Things Unexpectedly Named After People - one of the most fascinating links from this week - Snowflake, AZ was named after two people named Snow and Flake. Lake Mountain was named after George Lake, Taco Bell is named after the founder Glen Bell, and Mars (the candy) was named after Franklin Mars, not the planet. Insane.
- F-Zero courses from a dead Nintendo satellite service restored using VHS and AI - the breakdown is super weird the way they restored it, but it's super interesting. I wonder how much other content gets lost in the detritus of life, and how much we rely on people like this to recover lost artifacts. Game archaeologists, I guess?
- How Inuit Parents Raise Kids Without Yelling — And Teach Them To Control Anger - they tell stories. That's it, that's the tweet.