Sunday, April 27, 2025

The Woods Are Alive

This one's a random table of animals. I made it for personal use, but maybe you'll find a spot for it at your table. 

Want to breathe life into your forests? Talk about the animals. It doesn't have to be much, just a sentence or two. Do it whenever the mood strikes you, or when your players' eyes start to glaze over, or when there's not a random encounter. 

Here's a table of 20 animals, with descriptions of what they're up to. I bolded the animal so you can easily grab it and make up what they're doing on the fly. These are ones found in the coniferous forests where I live, and have seen in the wild (minus number 20). 

1. A pair of squirrels bound through the creaking tree branches in a high-stakes game of tag.
2. A hare bolts across your path, running from something that thought twice about approaching the party.
3. A white-tailed deer picks her head up from grazing and watches the party for a moment before gracefully bounding off, two clumsy fawns in tow.
4. A red fox swiftly digs a hole to bury its leftovers.
5. A remarkable number of bees drone around the party before deciding they don't contain nectar after all.
6. Ravenous mosquitoes descend on the party every time they enter shade.
7. Clouds of gnats hover along the trail, flying into unsuspecting noses, ears, and—gods forbid—mouths.
8. You catch glimpses of a marten in the underbrush as it hunts.
9. A porcupine waddles down the trail, untroubled.
10. You hear the staccato hammering of a woodpecker long before you see it up in a tree.
11. The quiet is shattered by the drumming of a ruffed grouse perched on a nearby log.
12. A cheerful choir of bluebirds flit between branches overhead.
13. A robin preens itself before taking flight.
14. A family of chickadees dart back-and-forth between the ground and a nearby tree.
15. A chipmunk scurries up a tree and begins to furiously chitter at the party.
16. Frogs croak and hop along the edge of a pond.
17. Butterflies lazily drift from bush to bush.
18. A black bear stands on its hind legs to get a better look at the party before meandering off.
19. A gray owl gazes imperiously down as the party passes under its tree.
20. A bobcat makes an impossible-looking jump up into a tree, a rodent dangling in its mouth.  

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