TTRPG Charts for Incubation, Initiatory Visions, and Mystical Dreams

Below is a first stab at randomizing a mystical experience for characters in your tabletop game of choice. This is meant to be a between-sessions extra, either played solo or assigned as homework by a GM. Results should add details that can be incorporated into future sessions or lead to new storylines. You might also use this while creating a new character, especially if they're in a religiously- inclined class.

The flavor here is Greco-Roman mystery cults in general and Orphic or Bacchic cults in particular. Feel free to take vague items from tables and roll for something more specific to your system (e.g. "a creature" → a kobold) or from your campaign (e.g. "a loved one" → your dead mom) to incorporate it more meaningfully.

The Situation

The player character decides to

and on the way

The GM (or the player, if prepping this solo) should roll from the Table of things sensed, Table of vibes, and Table of words of power for the content of the vision-dream. From these prompts the player should construct their character's memories of and interpretation of the dream, which can be left as vague half-remembered impressions or fully fleshed-out in detail.

The character's mystical experience should leave some sort of impression on them; the player can decide this for themself based on how they're developing the character, but for those truly devoted to randomness I have provided a Table of character reactions. The player may also like to give their character something from the Table of mementos, which they can embellish to suit their vision or the setting.

Contradictions that come up in the rolls can either be re- rolled or worked with — this is, after all, a dream.

Example 1

Out of a longing for something more, you decide to undergo an initiation into the mysteries enshrined at a well-known cave. You are shown and told things that you cannot speak of again, and afterwards you wait for sleep in a chamber of the cave, alone with a guttering lamp...

You decide that this had best remain a secret only to be shared with your fellow initiates, and later you will sculpt, to the best of your ability, a small clay ram that you will keep with you always. Before leaving the holy site you trade keepsakes with a well-met stranger; you receive a small handful of mixed seeds that (to your eyes) are shaped like ramsheads and sparkle like the night sky.

Example 2

You don't quite know why you decided to visit that disreputable old guy who lives halfway up the mountain and never bathes, but you wake up the morning after with a wine headache and a strong sense of anticipation. You won't remember your dream until the time comes.

The old guy is gone and when get up and look in the mirror you see he's taken the liberty of writing all over your face in sharpie: "O happy and blessed one! You are a god instead of a mortal." You still feel kind of antsy, so on your way down the mountain you make a little stack of rocks at a crossroads, leave behind some wildflowers, and decide to check on it whenever you're in town next. When you get home you find a small twist of red-dyed wool in your pocket, with no idea how it got there.

Table of things sensed (roll d100 3-5 times)

Table of vibes (roll d20 2-3 times)

Table of words of power (roll d20 1-2 times)

Table of character reactions (roll d20 1-3 times)

Table of mementos (roll d20 one time)

Some Sources and Further Reading:

• Rushing and Falling into Milk: New Perspectives on the Orphic Gold Tablets from Thurii and Pelinna
• Mystery Cults and Incantations: Evidence for Orphic Charms in Euripides’ Cyclops 646–48?
• Sending Dreams, Receiving Dreams: Oneiropompeia in Theory and in Practice
• Pan Rituals of Ancient Greece: a Multi-Sensory Body Experience
• Divinities in the Orphic Gold Leaves: Eukles, Eubouleus, Brimo, Kybele, Kore, and Persephone
• The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation