Trolls in the Cellar

Trolls in the Cellar

Perchance-style random generators, written as plain Markdown, directly inside Obsidian.

Trolls in the Cellar turns notes into small creative engines. Write named tables in a troll-food block, add a troll-speak block, and Obsidian renders an interactive roller with copyable results in Reading view. It is built for tabletop RPG prep, but the format is plain enough for names, rumors, omens, loot, locations, prompts, and anything else that benefits from structured randomness.

Quick Example

# Trap Generator

```troll-food
template
  {element} {trap} triggered by {trigger}

element
  flaming
  icy
  poisonous

trap
  darts
  spears
  a spiked pit

trigger
  tripwires
  floor plates
  a jeweled skull
```

```troll-speak
table: template
count: 5
format: list
```

In Reading view, the troll-speak block becomes a roller with Roll and Copy buttons.

Troll Speak Blocks

Use a fenced troll-speak block to configure what gets rolled.

table: template
count: 10
format: list

Supported options:

• table: the table to roll, defaulting to template
• count: number of results to generate, from 1 to 100
• format: list or paragraph
• source / sources: extra notes containing reusable troll-food blocks

The plugin also adds the command Roll current note generator, which rolls the first troll-speak block in the active note, copies the result, and shows it in a notice.

Table Syntax

Tables are plain text. A non-indented line starts a table. Indented lines are entries.

template
  A {condition} {item}
  [[100-500]] {coin_type} pieces

coin_type
  copper ^3
  silver ^2
  gold

Supported syntax:

• {table} rolls once on a named table
• [[min-max]] rolls an integer in a range
• entry ^3 weights an entry by repeating it three times
• {"one"|"two"} chooses one literal option
• {{table_a}|{table_b}} chooses between table results
• {"common"|"rare" ^4} gives extra weight to the last option
• 3 x {table} rolls a table multiple times and joins the results

The engine is intentionally small and practical. It uses repeated expansion passes with a recursion limit, so deeply nested generator syntax should stay simple.

Reusable Source Notes

For small generators, keep table data in the same note:

```troll-food
template
  {thing}

thing
  a brass key
  a cracked mirror
```

For large libraries, hide backing tables in Obsidian comments:

%% troll-food
template
  {thing}
%%

Then reference shared notes from a generator:

sources:
  - [[_tables/Common Generator Tables]]
  - [[_tables/NPC Generator Tables]]
table: npc
count: 6

source: and sources: accept wikilinks or vault-relative paths. Comma-separated source lists are also supported.

Markdown Dice Tables

Readable Markdown tables can also feed generators. If a Markdown table's first header cell looks like a dice or roll column, Trolls in the Cellar turns every other column into a rollable table.

## Character Goals

| d20 | Objective | Reason | Complication |
| --- | --------- | ------ | ------------ |
| 1   | Recover an heirloom | A debt is owed | A rival wants it too |
| 2-3 | Escort a witness | They know too much | The witness is lying |

From a note named Character Seeds, this creates:

{Character Seeds/Character Goals/Objective}
{Character Seeds/Character Goals/Reason}
{Character Seeds/Character Goals/Complication}

If a column name is unique within the page, a shorter page-level alias is also available:

{Character Seeds/Objective}

Ranges in the dice column weight entries. In the example above, the 2-3 row is twice as likely as the 1 row.

Columns are exposed as independent roll tables. If you combine several columns in one troll-food template, each column is rolled separately.

For compatibility with existing notes, Dice Roller links inside Markdown table cells are interpreted as Trolls table references at roll time. This is useful when imported Markdown tables already contain references to other roll tables. For example:

`dice: [[MazeRatsTables#^PhysicalEffects]]`

is interpreted as:

{PhysicalEffects}

Installation

Trolls in the Cellar is available in the Obsidian community plugin directory. In Obsidian, open Settings → Community plugins → Browse, search for Trolls in the Cellar, install it, and enable it. You can also install it from the community listing.

To track pre-release builds, install it with BRAT by adding this repository:

daren-thomas/trolls-in-the-cellar

For manual installation, copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css into:

.obsidian/plugins/trolls-in-the-cellar/

Then enable Trolls in the Cellar in Obsidian's Community Plugins settings.

Origin

This plugin began as an Obsidian adaptation of this CC0 generator template by Mike Shea:

https://github.com/mshea/lazy_gm_tools/blob/main/5e_artisanal_database/generators/generator_template/index.html

See NOTICE.md for source links and licensing notes.

License

Trolls in the Cellar is released under CC0 1.0 Universal. See LICENSE.