Strange and Wonderful Plant Generator Thingy

Let’s talk about weird and wonderful plant life. Sometimes we need an unusual plant for the PCs to encounter. Perhaps we don’t want another combat encounter in the wilderness. Maybe normal plants are just boring and we want a magical fantasy twist to the scenery. Maybe we just like rolling on tables and plants don’t seem to get love in that regard. Whatever the reason, it would be nice to get some dice and randomness involved. I suppose it’s worth saying that when we are saying ‘plant’ it’s being used as a fairly broad and definitely scientifically inaccurate way e.g. we’re including fungi and corals. Before making the tables let’s have a quick look at some real plants.

Nature is full of interesting and strange plants, fungi etc. It’s reasonably easy to look around the web for inspiration considering the variety of plant life in the world. As fodder for more varied description googling up some plants is worth it. Let’s have a look at a few I have picked out below.

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1. That’s a Joshua Tree or Yucca brevifolia. These things grow in the desert, can live to be a thousand and their roots can dig up to 11 metres into the ground. For reference for most trees in the UK 2-3 metres might be considered deep roots. For someone used to standard European trees it look pretty interesting and with a little creative tweaking (pale white bark, a shimmering pearlescent aura and a nesting white feathered vulture) it could easily be a fantasy plant. It would definitely make the preferred roosting place of a desert harpy, giant one could hold a whole roost.
2. Saxifraga burseriana – Also known as Burser’s saxifrage. You can picture it growing atop a high cliff that’s hard to get to. It’s found in the Alps and has been found at heights of 2500 feet. It tends to grow on rocks or in crevasses. Perhaps griffons use these to decorate their nests or its nectar is fed on by mountain dwelling bees whose honey has magical effects. Growing in mountains is great, a lot of adventuring should happen up mountains. The adventurers are off to pick some but they don’t realise giants pick them out in bunches to woo potential lovers.
3. Ginkgo biloba – Also known as the maidenhair tree, so called because of myth. Guānyīn, daughter of Diànmǔ the lightning mother, cut off her hair to save the Nanman people from a great calamity of fire. Where strands of her hair fell to earth this tree is said to have sprouted. Said by me, because I just made all of that up wooo. Its common name is the maidenhair tree though. The Ginkgo tree is seemingly the only remaining member of the order ginkgoales and is considered a living fossil. Sounds like an undiscovered, ancient repository of knowledge from when the earth was young if ever I heard of one. Who needs dusty old tomes when you have the spell: speak with plants. The gingko also appears to show little to no evidence of ageing, which is cool. It is also used in a lot of traditional medicine, none of which works, which is both cool and not cool at the same time. Six even survived the Hiroshima blast.
4. This is valonia ventricosa and it is like a big, bulgy green egg. Apparently, it’s an algae and is one of the biggest single cell creatures in the entire world. It grows underwater and can be annoying for those who have fish tanks and the like. According to wikipedia one of its nick names is Sailor’s Eye balls?! I don’t even care if that’s made up it’s a great name. It’s basically already a fantasy plant. Maybe we just put something interesting or valuable inside and make it slightly larger than in real life.

For more visual stimulus, what about any of these weird fungi (ok they’re not the same as ‘plants’ like trees and that but who cares really?).

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Obviously there is much much more stuff out there that can serve as inspiration: terrifying ant brain fungus, The Dragon Blood Tree, sea grapes, Venus flytraps and pitcher plants, Orchids with strange flower shapes, clumpy wooly lumps of stuff, strange shaped giant trees and much more. I think with such things out there in the real world we can probably do better than the basics when we mention plant life in our adventures. Why not have an interesting plant be the focus of side quests or even whole adventure arcs. They can make an easy McGuffin, key item or adventure token to be cashed in later too. Importantly, they can also give characters focused on nature something useful to do with their abilities, skills or spells. If people can cast Speak with Plants or something similar, unusual plants could provide interesting personality or NPC opportunities: a terrifyingly poisonous mushroom that is extremely arrogant about its abilities, a beautiful flower that is incredibly insecure…you get the idea. Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked…Lets get back to the process of generating some plants via random tabling.

Environment

The conditions that the plant has evolved in may affect how it looks or behaves. Some adaptations might be more suitable to certain climates than others. Perhaps our first table should be a simple one. Lets generate different emblematic plant types for different stereotypical fantasy environments. Our starting point is the five main biome types: Aquatic, grassland, forest, desert, tundra. As well as these, we will follow up with a few unusual biomes relating to fantasy such as other planes of existence.

Urban environments: For now we will leave out City environments since really these usually have plant life from the surrounding biomes. They may also have systems that allow for plant life from other environments e.g. greenhouses or irrigation. Therefore, for urban environments simply pick the table you feel is most appropriate and then, if you wish to, create some logic for this plant being able to thrive in the city’s biome. Perhaps a god gifted the plant to the town in the past or the local wizards help them grow to show off. Unusual plants can often be a personal status symbol or they might represent something about the culture e.g. during the British Empire it was very fancy to have plants from the extremities of the empire. Like under the British Empire, botanical gardens may also play a role in the economics of colonialism as seed beds. Unusual plants may also simply be in the city for study by horti-occulturists or people of science.

Dungeon Environments: As far as I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be much point making a dungeon or underground plant table. Nearly all or perhaps all plants need light to live. Some plants can grow in low light, such as those which grow on densely foliated forrest floors. Even if they don’t need light they likely feed on decaying matter from those plants who do need light. Fungi can grow in darkness but they tend to eat decaying matter. Dungeon plants growing in infrequent candle-light or no light at all would make them almost magical by default. We could have a table entirely populated by fungi and slimes but I’m not sure what the point is. So I haven’t done that here. If you want dungeon plants just roll on one the tables below and modify or just use a slime, everyone loves a good dungeon slime. Brown mould is always fun but dark vision negates a lot of the need for torches which set it off. Anyway sidetracked again…

The following tables are for a base plant type which you can then tweak or add interesting features. Either make up your own or keep reading.

Terrestrial Biomes

d10	Aquatic	Grassland	Forest	Desert	Tundra
1	Green Algae	Lichen	Lichen	Lichen	Lichen
2	Kelp	Moss	Moss	Fern	Artic Moss
3	Sargassum	Conifers / Broadleaf	Conifers / Broadleaf	Desert Shrub	Artic / Diamondleaf Willow
4	Sponge	Shrub or Bush	Cycad	Cactus	Heather
5	Coral	Flower	Palm	Desert Gourd	Poppy
6	Plankter	Legume	Fern	Date Palm	Cottonsedge
7	Water Mould / Slime	Fungus	Fungus	Tamarisk	Bearberry
8	Duck Weed	Sage	Sage	Ephedra	Reindeer Moss
9	Pyrosome / Salp	Tuber	Ivy	Yucca	Saxifrage / Rockfoil
10	Water Fern	Grass	Grass	Acacia	Grass / Sedge

Planar Biomes

Planar Biomes will inevitably have magical, elemental or divine infused plants. Some of the magical or interesting plants we find on the material plane may not even originate on the material plane. Hmmm that gives me an idea. We should probably have another table that tells us the plants origin! We can do that one after we finish this one though…let’s not get ahead of ourselves. So, planar biomes have unique conditions and natures that might influence their character. If it originated on the plane of fire or can be found there then it will undoubtably be resistant to fire, at least while it grows there. A tree on the elemental plane of air may not need roots to be buried in soil, it may not even have roots. These plants don’t really need to behave in any normal way. It is also perfectly fine to say that planar plants may not grow outside their native plane, might change form when removed from it or that it simply turns to dust without magical intervention when removed from that plane.

Rather than generating a plant type (you can use the preceding table for that) these tables produce interesting quirks of an elemental or divine nature.

d10	Elemental Planes	Divine Planes
1	Whilst it is in the shape of a plant, it is made of the raw element itself i.e. fire, stone etc.	Each plant is made from a single soul as a heavenly transmogrification or an evil metamorphosis
2	Due to the nature of its home plane it is able to withstand extreme: pressure, heat, wind	When planted in the material plane, its seeds sprout new souls to be born into mortal bodies
3	The plant is not made of raw elemental material but rather feeds on it like a regular plant might feed on soil and light	Grows in chaotic, mind shearing patterns or tightly regulated, uniform structures
4	It provides stability and safety by anchoring chaotic forces, providing shelter from flaming meteors, holding together cleaving plates, preventing wild floods or absorbing energy from fearsome storms.	When the wind moves it, the plant lets out a whispered, rattling incantation of sacred or profane verses
5	It acts in opposition to the forces of the plane: Immovable by air, growing colder with heat, transforming the water around it into air and pale blue fire or counteracting gravity does and turning diamonds to talc.	Grows only on the bodies of dead devils, angels and gods
6	It is grows like a parasite on elementals like an elemental fungal infection	Feeds on thoughts about a specific good or evil deed and blooms when it is committed
7	Part of the plant’s life cycle is spent in each of the elemental planes. Those who know how can use it to move between planes.	It is associated with a specific virtue or sin and encourages that behaviour in its vicinity
8	Its presence calms or enrages elementals, either by simply being in its presence or after it is refined into a tincture.	Part of the plant is used to create paper on which are written the names of the dead and their ultimate fates.
9	The plant is considered a delicacy by elementals of its plane. However, if it is eaten by a mortal they risk petrification, burning down to charcoal, dissolving or evaporating.	Sprouts where powerful celestial creatures walk and where they will walk in the future.
10	The plant’s seeds, spores, pollen or other parts manifest as small storms, grassfires, floods and earthquakes on the material plane.	The plant is poisonous to celestial beings and invasive to their plane. If allowed to roam unchecked, it will change its nature and alignment.

Origins

Ok as we said up there, we may want a table that gives us the place of origin or the circumstances of origin of our strange plant. This table is split into two. Roll two d12 at the same time and use one for the place and the other for the circumstance. Often the plant does not need to originate outside the material plane or we may already have an idea of where it originated. If a role doesn’t make sense for your campaign setting simply re-roll or pick an appropriate result (duh we know that).

d12	Place of Origin	Circumstances of Origin
1	The Material Plane	Naturally occurring i.e. evolved or was always present
2	An Elemental Plane	A product of intentional magical intervention
3	The Green / Arborea / plane of plant life	The product of a magical accident or an accidental by-product of great magic
4	The Feywild / Shadowfell / The Hedge	Accidentally or intentionally imported by travellers or settlers from far afield
5	A divine plane or realm / The Hells	Invasive and gradually spreading
6	The Dreamlands	A gift to someone from or created by a divine being
7	The Astral Sea	The result of a mythological event – war, calamity, parable, transformation, death
8	The Ethereal Plane	A manifestation of the earth’s anger or part of its immune system
9	The Outside / The Far Realm / The Void	Created through selective breeding over millennia
10	Outer Space	Used to be a part of a larger entity e.g. the ‘hair’ of an elemental
11	Another Planet	Stolen from someone or something, perhaps a god
12	Unknown and/or Unknowable	Connected to a living being, a manifestation of their life force

More Modifiers

Ok so we have a collection of base plant types that we can randomly select from. We also have where the plant came from. Where actually gets interesting to anyone beyond botanists is when we add fantasy or game-able elements. We could have characteristics that are blown out of proportion or unusual. We could have characteristics that are encounter or adventure inspiring. We can have characteristics that are related to the nature of the encounter with this plant. We can have stuff that just seems cool.

Unusual Physical Feature

This table provides a list of basic modifications to the rolled plant type. These are designed to add some spice to the base plant. Combine them, use them as inspiration etc. It might be that the characteristic doesn’t fit with the rolled plant type but a little tweak or a re-roll should fix that.

d20	Unusual Feature
1	Gigantic in height, width or covering an unusually large area
2	An abnormal, rare or magical colouration – bright red bark, sap that runs International Klein Blue, Ashen grey grass flecked with lemon yellow, an indescribably soft orange
3	Part of the plant’s anatomy is covered in irritating bristles or sharp spines that protect it from predators. It may be poisonous, burn the lips or irritate the eyes etc.
4	The plant or part of it glows with a faint bioluminescence
5	It lives with, in or on another plant or creature. It is either parasitic or symbiotic.
6	Rather than subsist only on soil, sunlight etc. it also feeds on insect or animal life
7	Its sap or internal fluids are made of something unusual – a metal such as mercury or silver, animal-like blood, steam
8	It is extremely difficult to harvest successfully. It requires great skill and time and failure spoils the harvest or is dangerous.
9	The leaves, roots, fruit or other elements grow into unusual geometric patterns with sharp angular edges. Some mathematicians claim they have meaning.
10	It is a virulent weed taking over the entire area. It may be preparing this plane or area for an invasion by gradually warping the landscape.
11	It will only grow in extremely inaccessible areas or difficult terrain – high mountain tops, deep lakes, cliff sides, at the bottom of deep ravines or on top of the highest forrest canopy
12	The plant forms a symbiotic relationship with a local monster. It may enhance its abilities, keeping it hidden, increasing its strength etc. It may consume its kills or feed on its leavings.
13	The plant appears all over the landscape but each of these lone plants are actually part of a much much larger gestalt plant. It may take several different above ground forms – various flowering plants, roses of different colours, a forest of kelp, patches and fields of grass
14	The pollen or some other element of the plant is extremely sticky. It attaches to clothing or fur and is irritating to exposed skin.
15	The sap or internal fluids form a resinous sticky substance like rubber or glue.
16	Like an arboreal iceberg the majority of the plant is under the ground or surface. The visible portion pales in significance.
17	When cut down or picked it lets out a strange screeching sound that can be heard for miles.
18	It is unusually resistant to damage or ecological conditions – it can survive sweeping fires that cleanse the land, resist steel axes or survive once in a lifetime drought or floods
19	The plant exudes a powerful odor designed to attract or repulse. It might smell: sweet like honey, pestilent like rotted flesh, invasive like burnt rubber, acrid like sour milk and burnt fat, a nostalgic memory of a comfortable chair and blanket, like divine coconut, vanilla, mint or spices.
20	It grows and dies extremely quickly but only when conditions are perfect. Alternatively, it grows or blooms only once a decade or century.

Magical or significant properties

This table is for more significant, magical or fantastical properties. Each of these is designed to add a strange and wondrous element to the plant. Maybe they will just inspire you to come up with your own weird ideas. The properties are not specified in game terms so they should be adjustable to any system, I hope. This is about ideas and not mechanics. In general one of these features should be enough to inspire or create a memorable plant. Most of these ideas started with a simple idea that was then pushed into weirder territory.

D20	Significant Properties
1	The plant grows in such a way that it creates tableaus of historic events. These events may be pulled from the collective memory of the world or they may be events that happened in the area. The plant does this without intervention but rather as if intimately connected to memory. Ingesting the plant is dangerous, especially without the right formulation. However, if done correctly, one can experience the tableau personally as if in a cloudy dream. Afterwards, the PC may be unsure of who they are or if the memory they experienced was not actually their’s.
2	The plant gradually grows to mimic the shape and features of a creature that frequents the area. After a long enough time has passed and if the creature is there frequently enough, eventually the plant becomes an arboreal clone of that creature. It mimics its behaviour but its thought processes are alien. It still sustains itself in the manner it did before. If the creature could speak, the plant can only communicate using words that it heard the creature speak, limiting its vocabulary.
3	The plant is sentient and can be communicated with. This communication may take the form of psychic images, strange haunting creaks, slow twisting sign language or other alien means. Alternatively, it can reshape itself over time to form words in an ancient language. Communication may take a long time. The plant may be overly concerned with things beyond the care of PCs such as soil quality, the quality of sunlight this year, the presence of invasive weeds or the unwanted attention of local animal life.
4	When disturbed, harvested or killed the plant violently explodes killing creatures around it and regrowing from their corpses.
5	The plant is made of a fantastical substance such as stone, gems, metal, solid angular lightning in balls and bolts, animal-like flesh perhaps bones and blood, its sap is extremely strong acid
6	All plant life in the area is gradually co-opted and infested by this plant. Eventually there is only one plant in many forms, joined by root, branch, pollen exchange. This plant is all plants, this plant will be everything.
7	Once you see it up close you can’t forget it. It is visually poisonous. It may haunt your memory, grow across your waking vision like ivy or substitute itself for other plants you can see. The effect is gradually maddening but those who succumb completely attain a nirvana like attunement to nature.
8	The plant seems completely unremarkable. In fact, its unremarkability is extremely remarkable. The paradox is confusing to the mind and causes great psychic pain to sentient creatures. Its nature makes it extremely difficult to pinpoint the source of this pain.
9	The pollen creates heightened emotions when inhaled. Many creatures in the area will be immune but some of the PCs will be super affected. The knowledge to refine this into a powerful drug is hidden in a forgotten, ruined tower on a tablet of stone in a dead language.
10	The Plant feeds on colour absorbing a specific pigment from everything in the area. This happens gradually over time but a noticeable dulling occurs when entering the area. The colour is replaced with a strange, indescribable shade of off white. Eventually over time creatures in the area will forget that the colour ever existed at all.
11	The plant infects local animal life either through ingestion, psychic suggestion or spores. The animals will protect the plant at all costs even forming unusual bonds and pairings to do so. The hawk and the dove will fly in attack formation, the bear and the salmon will converse on defensive strategy and the wolf and the rabbit will pray to the plant together.
12	The plant is incalculably old, dying and being reborn over and over. It can communicate flashing psychic images from history it has witnessed over its life span. The images are somewhat vague having captured psychic impressions of living things or physical sensations of events but perhaps without hearing or seeing. Those of weak mind will end up re-enacting those events in strange memory plays as the sun sets.
13	It will only grow in locations where something intangible or meaningful has occurred – where lovers lay, a liar told their greatest lie, where tears were shed or someone lost their faith.
14	It grows exclusively where magic has been used, the residual energy helps to germinate its seeds or feed its growth. It will slowly twist, turn and grow towards sources of magical energy. It may grow large, unruly and terrifying in the presence of a strong source of magical energy. If the magic is of a particular type the plant may take on some of its character. For instance, in the presence of a magical flame the plant may exude heat and light.
15	The plant is entirely unique. It does not require pollination or engage in reproduction. There has only ever been and only ever will be one. When it dies, it will eventually sprout up in another location. Its life cycle varies, sometimes it grows fast, sometimes it grows slowly, sometimes it lives for an age, sometimes it lives for a day or an hour. Its choice of location is always important. It has not been seen in this area in millennia.
16	The seed pods explode covering a wide area around the plant. These form a beautiful display of colours and scents that may or may not be fatal or psychoactive – the seeds may be like flechettes, nails or buckshot, they may burrow into the skin and nest there eventually forming a parasitic relationship. The seeds’ coating may cause indelible marking or exude a scent attractive to certain predators in the area. Despite this effect the seeds are considered to be lucky charms.
17	When inhaled, exuded pollen clouds cause the affected to flee. The afflicted move with a subconscious drive towards the nearest plant of the same species. The effect is subtle and hard to notice like half remembering the correct turn at a crossroads. Once the nearest plant is reached, the PC may be affected again. Those who are unlucky spend their lives moving in winding trails through the landscape. They pollinate and move on, pollinate and move on in an endless life cycle that is not their own, unaware of their true purpose. Roll a d6 to see how far away the nearest plant is: 1 : 10 miles 2-3: 1 mile 4-5: 200 metres 6: 10 metres
18	It is invisible unless looked at through a special glass or by arranging the fingers in a particular manner and looking through them. Alternatively, one must smear black powder made from another local plant under their eyes or ingest part of an animal that feeds on it. The latter two also provide protection from its attempts to charm you.
19	The plant straddles between planes. Part of it exists on the plane the PCs are on whilst the rest exists on another or multiple other planes. It is native to all of these, a hybrid, a fusion of ideals, ideas and archetypes it is like plasma is to solid, liquid and gas. The plant can be interacted with by different entities on different planes at the same time, if time exists on the other planes. It may provide a conduit for communication between, a means of travel to and from or simply drink from both like an alcoholic drinking two drinks at once. Gemstone nutrients drawn from elemental earth produce succulent fruit on the plane of water.
20	These plants were genetically engineered, shaped by magic or whispered into being by an ancient alien race. If one can learn their dead language of clicks, creaks, whistles and quiet thoughts you can coax the plant to activate. If activated incorrectly a void expands from the plant, which slowly pulls in and swallows all living matter within 100 metres. After an hour this void swallows itself leaving behind only a faint whiff of loss and regret. When it is awakened to its true purpose again it creates a portal. This portal shimmers with vibrant chlorophyll light and looks waxy and solid or resinous, amber and viscous. The portal may exit out of another plant nearby, on another continent, another world or may transport you to the gravelands out of time and space of this elder, extinct race.

Motivations

Motivations are important. Sure we can drop the plant into our games for some interesting colour, fantasy character or magical ecology but it would be nice if PCs had a reason to care about it. The preceding tables may give or naturally produce reasons to interact with the plant but this table is for extra interest.

d20	Why it is of Interest
1	It grows, blooms, produces fruit only extremely rarely and legend speaks of its prophetic significance. It must be checked and is in a hard to reach place.
2	Its skin, bark, roots or other part of its body are extremely valuable and potentially extremely dangerous
3	It changes the behaviour of a particular creature that lives nearby. It may may make it more dangerous, aggressive, docile, breed more rapidly or other problematic behaviour.
4	When the plant is dissected, its inner parts can be read in a prophetic ritual like a more accurate reading of tea leaves or coffee granules. Does the act of performing the ritual make the events unfold?
5	The plant is a symbol of authority and must be brought back to the lord or king. Perhaps another has already claimed some of it as a symbol of their competing authority.
6	The plant can be rendered down into a drink that when it touches the lips reveal the heart or intentions of its drinker. The drink changes colour – red for violence, blue for good purpose, yellow for greed. The other myriad shades are harder to interpret.
7	An NPC desires it or a villain needs it to advance their plan. They may need any, all or one particular plant among many.
8	The plant is not supposed to grow here. What has caused it to spread?
9	The plant forms a barrier between the PCs and one of their goals. It may function as a trap that causes damage or status impediments.
10	It is associated with a particular god or religion. It is important to the people who follow or worship. It is important to a PC due to their religious convictions.
11	The plant features in the backstory of one of the PCs and triggers a memory. This memory may have been repressed. Possessing the plant may provide additional clues over time if smoked, ingested or contemplated upon.
12	It is a vital ingredient in a cure for a disease or an alchemical concoction.
13	The plant is endangered – changes in ecological conditions, predatory animals, humanoids over harvesting, an industrial process or accident is poisoning it or it is infected by an organism.
14	An evil doer or entity has seeded the plant in this area as part of a broader plan.
15	It is attracting monsters to the area who feed on it.
16	The plant is a warning sign of a nearby planar gate or ancient power source leaking. This may be hidden.
17	It is valuable for mundane processes or craft – used as a dye, spice, industrial agent, minor medicines/drugs, paper, weak poison.
18	It is extremely valuable for rare goods or arcane craft – ritual spell casting, spell components, alchemical ingredients, kingly dyes, jewellery, rare medicines or drugs, construction of a magical item, powerful poisons.
19	It can be used as bait or feed for some rare creature or as a gourmet bargaining chip with an intelligent one.
20	The plant is considered sacred or is culturally important to locals. It may form some part of a ritual that will allow the PCs to gain acceptance by them.

Names

Last but not least we should make a quick way to generate plant names. I’m not bothered about latin or greek classification names, what we want are common names that evoke something. Many real plants have cool common names and these are sometimes bound up with myth anyway. A lot take the form of Roll once on each table and smash them together or pick yer favourites. If it makes sense, tweak them and reverse the order.

d20	First half	Second half
1	A profession e.g. Sailor’s, Soldier’s, Barber’s, traveller’s	Plant
2	A rank e.g. King’s, Lord’s, Knight’s, Commoner’s	Add false or true and roll again
3	A time of day e.g. Day, Night, Evening, Morning	A destiny e.g. Ruin / Bane, death, fate, fortune
4	A colour e.g. crimson, white, grey, sapphire, turquoise	An emotion e.g. Delight, joy, sadness, wrath
5	A verb e.g. weeping, curling, falling, laughing	A term related to light e.g. Shade, beam, glare, bright, flare, glow, shimmer, dusk, gloom
6	A common substance e.g. milk, cheese, bread	A part of the plant e.g. flower, bark, sap, stem, fruit, berry
7	An animal e.g. Hedgehog, snake, wolf, rabbit, lizard, bear, sheep	The plant type e.g. tree, grass, weed, bush
8	An adjective related to its shape e.g. bulbous, gigantic, curly	A humanoid body part e.g. Beard, hair, finger, foot, teeth, navel
9	An adjective related to what it does e.g. stinging, stinky, spreading, tangling, bleeding, flowering	Another common plant e.g. cabbage, onion, rice, wheat
10	A fantasy creature e.g. witch’s, djinn’s, dragon’s, ghost. Roll on a random encounter table and use that result	An animal body part e.g. wing, paw, claw
11	A god or divine being e.g. Odin, devil, angel, Pitfiend	A colour
12	A polity, a country, kingdom or other area in your game world	A made up plant name e.g. Villir, Gorda, Ibu, Shorio, Uk, Jamashivaram
13	A people in your game world or a race	A mundane item that might connect to the plant’s shape e.g. poker, pipe, hat, comb, basket, button
14	A historic figure e.g. Grandlin, Mortenka, Angloto, Xianma	A fruit the plant resembles e.g. plum, currant, quince, pear, apple
15	Something grand or important sounding e.g. destiny, eternal, ancient, magnificent, glory	A liquid e.g. wine, blood, tears, sap, brine
16	A locale e.g. beach, tundra, snow plains, veldt, forrest, field	Roll again and insert ‘of’
17	The name’s origin is lost and it is simply a single word co-opted from a dead language	A word related to how it grows e.g. creeper, bloomer, choker, rot
18	A fantasy class or profession e.g. bard, wizard, gladiator	A time of year e.g. summer, winter, solstice, the name of a festival
19	One of the elements, forces or planes e.g. fire, astral, divine, lightning, storm, flood	Take the name of two or three real world plants and mash them together e.g. dandelion, cactus and St. John’s Wort becomes Dandactus Wort
20	Roll twice and combine the results	Roll twice and combine the results

Conclusion

There we have it The Strange and Wonderful Plant Generator Thingy is done (SWPGT really rolls off the tongue). A hopefully fully functioning fantasy plant generator. We can generate a base plant, its origin, its unusual characteristics, why it is of interest and also what it is called. Obviously, the tables could be expanded but it’s good enough to work with. It also requires some buy in and thought for some of the vaguer results but if you don’t want to do that I’m not sure we are the same type of dungeon master. Perhaps in a future post or two I will generate plants with the tables and see what we end up with. For now, I hope it gets someone somewhere’s brain moving about incorporating plants into their adventures. I would be interested to hear from you if you do. See ya!

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