A Shared Fortune File for Tabletop RPGs, Board Games and Wargames

A random line of tabletop humor or game master advice can add a little personality to a quiet moment. That’s the idea behind a new fortune file for roleplaying games, wargames and board games: a collection of short sayings and snippets that people can add to and share. It began as a small wiki page and now has a Codeberg repository, giving contributors a place to gather the kind of gaming wisdom that’s easy to pass around but rarely lives in one file.

A tiny program with a simple job

The project takes its cue from fortune, a classic Unix program that prints a pseudorandom message from a collection of quotations. Debian’s man page describes it as a tool to “print a random, hopefully interesting, adage.” The name nods to fortune cookies, so the output is meant as a small surprise, not a serious pronouncement.

Its simplicity is the appeal. Give the program a file of sayings, jokes or other brief text, and it selects one to display. Users can choose the source file and set preferences such as the length of the output. That focused job makes it a handy little piece of software: it can add a human touch to a shell session, an email signature or a website without asking anyone to stop and choose a message.

That last use can sound frivolous, but a changing line of text can give a static page a little life. The original author recalls seeing fortunes about project management used that way. They didn’t change how the project worked; they simply gave visitors something different to read. In tabletop spaces, a short line about a familiar gaming habit could serve the same purpose: a quick laugh, a prompt for conversation, or a reminder from the table that rules knowledge alone doesn’t make a memorable session.

From shell prompt to game table

Some Unix users see a fortune each time they open a shell, if an administrator has set it up that way. Others put one in an email or forum signature. The format also pairs naturally with cowsay, a program that displays text in an ASCII speech bubble alongside a cow or another bit of art.

 ________________________________________
/ I could never be a druid, I just don’t \
\ trust the trees. They’re too shady. /
----------------------------------------
\ ^__^
\ (oo)\_______
(__)\ )\/\
||----w |
|| ||

For tabletop groups, this kind of short text can work in more than one setting. A joke can open a chat, a sharp bit of advice can give a game master something to think about before a session, and a compact story can offer a moment of inspiration between games. The format rewards lines that make sense on their own, since someone may encounter a saying without knowing who wrote it or what conversation it came from.

There are already many collections for different interests. Some come with Unix distributions; others collect material around a particular subject, such as Discworld quotes or Chuck Norris facts. The new file applies that familiar format to gaming. The author says the idea came while experimenting with an IRC bot that could draw on fortune. They found no existing file centered on roleplaying, wargaming, board gaming or gaming more broadly, so they started one.

A community collection in progress

The first version appeared as a small page on campaignwiki.org, at https://campaignwiki.org/wiki/TTRPGFortuneFile/HomePage. Because the page is a wiki, visitors can add material directly. The author says contributors had already begun doing so, and invites more entries: pithy sayings, jokes, game master advice and other short pieces that might be fun or useful to encounter at random.

There’s room for more than one kind of entry. A punchline is an easy fit, but the invitation also includes memorable gaming quotes and stories of modest length. That range gives the file a chance to sound like the hobby itself, where table wisdom, running jokes and tales of unexpected outcomes often sit side by side. The best contributions will likely be clear enough to stand alone and compact enough to work as a surprise.

An edit to the original post adds a second home: the author created a repository on Codeberg at https://codeberg.org/kyonshi/ttrpg-fortunes. The project now has both the original wiki page and a repository, with the author’s stated plan being to move it to GitHub later. No timeline is given for that move, so for now the wiki page and Codeberg repository are the places readers can use to find or contribute to the collection.

The file’s value will come down to the entries people choose to share. A handful of good lines can make a bot feel less mechanical or give a group a laugh before play begins; a broader collection can reflect the many ways people enjoy games. If you’ve got a compact joke, a useful bit of game master advice or a short story worth passing around, the wiki gives you a direct way to add it.