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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 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

• explore a cave
• visit a temple of Asklepios
• visit a hermitage

and on the way

• suffers from sensory deprivation or overload
• undergoes an incubation ritual
• is initiated into a mystery cult.

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...

Where the white ram waits you joyfully leap downwards into the milky stars. You can still feel the hands of the moon on your skin as you awake repeating the words “I am parched with thirst and am dying”.

You decide that this had best remain a secret only to the chosen, 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.

Rolls: sensory details: 99 (leaping), 47 (stars), 93 (lingering touch), 4 (ram), 48 (moon); vibes: 11 (descent), 7 (joy); words: 4; reactions: 9 (initiatory secret), 14 (votive object); memento: 5 (seeds).

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.

You're in the midst of a raging battle, barely able to see through the blood and rain obscuring your vision. You've Arrived.

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.

Rolls: sensory details: 42 (obscuring haze), 74 (raging battle), 57 (rain), 24 (blood); vibes: 9 (anticipation), 4 (arrival); words: 11; reaction: 7 (forget), 15 (shrine); memento: 15 (wool).

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

1. egg
2. serpent
3. bull
4. ram
5. goat
6. swine
7. birds
8. wool
9. linen
10. flax
11. bones
12. coins
13. a mirror
14. a toybox
15. a lamp
16. a gem
17. a book
18. a weapon
19. a mysterious object
20. fruit
21. garlands
22. grain
23. beans
24. blood
25. milk
26. honey
27. wine
28. oil
29. perfume
30. incense
31. smoke
32. fire
33. drumbeat
34. trumpets
35. flutes
36. tympanum
37. shouts
38. singing
39. murmuring
40. gurgling
41. echoes
42. obscuring haze
43. sharp clarity
44. gold light
45. white light
46. darkness
47. stars
48. moon
49. sun
50. high noon
51. rosy-fingered dawn
52. violet-fingered dusk
53. midnight
54. rainbow
55. wind
56. clouds
57. rain
58. thunder
59. soil
60. deep forest
61. windswept plains
62. endless desert
63. desolate mountain
64. florid meadow
65. roiling sea
66. silent river
67. winding labyrinth
68. resounding cave
69. quiet village
70. bountiful harvest
71. bustling market
72. yearly festival
73. prominent temple
74. raging battle
75. famine-stricken land
76. plague-stricken land
77. crossroads
78. a deity
79. a spirit
80. a god
81. a goddess
82. a child
83. a youth
84. an elder
85. a stranger
86. a friend
87. a loved one
88. a beautiful body
89. a creature
90. a monster
91. a headless one
92. an unknowable being
93. a lingering touch
94. a kiss
95. the dance
96. the hunt
97. rending flesh
98. rushing
99. leaping
100. falling

Table of vibes (roll d20 2-3 times)

1. awe
2. fear
3. panic
4. anticipation
5. ecstasy
6. intoxication
7. joy
8. grief
9. arrival
10. departure
11. descent
12. ascent
13. déjà vu
14. possession
15. confusion
16. recognition
17. transgression
18. intrusion
19. catharsis
20. returning home

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

1. This is the work of Memory, when I am about to die
2. Do not even go near this spring!
3. I am a child of earth and starry heaven, but my race is heavenly; and this you know yourselves
4. I am parched with thirst and am dying
5. I, too, having drunk, will go along the sacred road on which other glorious initiates travel
6. I come pure from the pure
7. I also claim to be of your happy race
8. I have flown out of the heavy, difficult circle
9. I have approached the longed-for crown with swift feet
10. I have sunk beneath the breast of the Lady
11. O happy and blessed one! I am a god, instead of a mortal.
12. A kid, I fell into milk
13. Now I have died and now I have come into being
14. I have wine as my fortunate honor
15. I drank the kykeon; I took from the kistes
16. I ate from the tympanon; I drank from the kymbalos
17. I escaped the bad; I found the better
18. I have been initiated and I went down into the chamber and I saw the other things below
19. Bring to perfection for me a perfect incantation
20. Already I have been a boy and a maiden, a bush and a bird and a fish jumping up from the sea

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

1. You deny the truth of your dream
2. You feel afraid
3. You feel at peace
4. You feel full of joy
5. Your dream is in conflict with your previously held beliefs
6. You see reminders of your dream in everything
7. You forget your dream until it comes true
8. You keep your dream secret and private
9. You only share your dream with other initiates, when the secret word is spoken and the secret sign is shown
10. You share your dream with intimates or party members
11. You feel compelled to share your dream with the world
12. You take up an ascetic lifestyle
13. You take up a hedonistic lifestyle
14. You craft a votive object
15. You create and tend a wayside shrine
16. You are inspired to go on a pilgrimage
17. You know who the entity in your dream was
18. You know your dream was prophetic
19. You decide to research the content of your dream
20. You attach great significance to the words of power in your dream

Table of mementos (roll d20 one time)

1. an invitation to visit a fellow initiate
2. an invitation to another ritual or revel
3. an interesting stone
4. an interesting feather
5. a handful of seeds
6. a small flask of alcohol
7. a drinking bowl
8. a simple oil lamp
9. a piece of metal foil inscribed with words of power
10. a coin, not to be spent
11. a simple ring with an engraved gem
12. a small pendant
13. a small clay votive
14. a rough linen robe
15. a small twist of wool
16. a rustic musical instrument
17. knowledge of a purifying herb, and a small pouch of it
18. knowledge of a protective herb, and a small pouch of it
19. knowledge of a healing herb, and a small pouch of it
20. knowledge of a baneful herb, and a small pouch of it

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

This is an untested draft, if you use it I'd love to hear about it! You can email me at eregminos@protonmail.com or support me on ko-fi.