Monday 12 January 2015

Crest of a Knave. Heraldry Tables Made Easy



The idea for this came up last weekend at our AD&D 1st Edition game. One of the players is a Knight in training, and to cut a long story short, they found themselves at a Motte and Bailey Castle, mixing with a host of Knightly Factions from other parts of the Realm. The players kept on asking me what their Coat-of-Arms were, and I was making it up off the cuff; I didn’t think they would be all that interested to be honest, or I would have  have worked it out before hand, and put some effort into it. I had the basics, but not the detail. So I thought I would make a few Random Charts for everyone to use when rolling up simple Heraldic Insignia. I am keeping it easy here, really basic, there are thousands of great books out there that really get behind this subject, but that is not my intention here... so, on to, the ‘Crest of a Knave!’


A simple breakdown of what’s what.

Sinister is the left hand side of the shield, Dexter is the right. The Field is the main colour that covers the shield, as in, a red rose on a field of green, or a yellow Crown on a Field of red.
So, roll for your Field Colour first,

Field (1d6)
1) Red
2) Yellow
3) Green
4) Blue
5) Black
6) White

Then Roll what’s going on top, and what colour it will be. If you roll the same number for colour, just roll again. Once you know what is going on the shield, i.e. one of the six Escutcheons, simply go to the appropriate chart and roll again. I have provided images for the more complicated ones (courtesy of Wikipedia).

Escutcheons (1d6)( Whats's on top of the Field)
1)      Animal
2)      Honourable Ordinaries
3)      Plants
4)      Crosses
5)      Common Charges
6)      Objects

1)Animal (1d20)

1)      Bear
2)      Boar
3)      Bat
4)      Bull
5)      Crab
6)      Dragon
7)      Eagle
8)      Elephant
9)      Griffon
10)     Hippogriff
11)     King
12)     Leopard
13)     Lion
14)     Medusa
15)     Octopus
16)     Pegasus
17)     Queen
18)     Stag
19)     Salamander
20)     Unicorn

2)Honourable Ordinaries (1d20) (Images are below)

1)      Bars
2)      Bend
3)      Bordure
4)      Canton
5)      Chevron
6)      Chief
7)      Cross
8)      Fess
9)      Flaunches
10)     Fret
11)     Gyron
12)     Label
13)     Orle
14)     Pale
15)     Pall
16)     Pile
17)     Quarter
18)     Reverse Pile
19)     Reverse Chief
20)     Saltire

3)Plants (1d6)

1)      Tree (Fructed)







2)      Tree Withered











3)      Garb of Wheat







4)      Three Trefoils







5)      Heraldic Rose







6)      Fleur-de-lis








4)Crosses (1d8)

1)      Bottony






2)      Crosslet






3)      Flory






4)      Maltese






5)      Moline






6)      Patonce






7)      Patee






8)      Potent







5)Common Charges (1d10)

1)      Inescutcheon







2)      Lozenge







3)      Three Mascles







4)      Rustre







5)      Six Billets







6)      Three Bezants







7)      Fountain







8)      Three Annulets







9)      Star and Crescent







10)     Five Mullets Pierced








6)Objects (1d20)

1)  Anchor
2)  Axe
3)  Arrow
4)  Book with Letters
5)  Chess Rook
6)  Crown
7)  Compass Rose
8)  Candle
9)  Sun
10)     Harp
11)     Keys
12)     Moon
13)     Ship
14)     Snowflake
15)     Stars
16)     Spur
17)     Sun
18)     Sword
19)     Tower
20)     Trident

Honourable Ordinaries

Bars
 
Bend


Bordure

Canton

Chevron

Chief

Cross

Fess

Flaunches

Fret

Gyron

Label

Orle

Pale

Pall

Pile

Quarter

Reverse Pile

Saltire


















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