I don't know about your players, but my players sometimes need a gentle prod to go adventuring when starting a new campaign. Sometimes they just need a good plot hook to point them in the right direction. Since I am about to embark on a new campaign, I thought I would set the tone with some "Adventuring Reasons". The theory is, if they can't come up with their own shit, they'll have to roll on this attached table.

I knocked this up over the last couple days and with any luck someone will get a laugh and maybe an idea or two. Formatting directly into a forum post sucked balls, so I pdf'ed it.

(thought I would cross-post over here as well since Pseudo and Kyle's gaming posts were part of reason for me cracking open my AD&D 1e books and starting a new campaign)

That's excellent, Tyson. In fact I would not even give the players a chance to decide why they're on the adventure, I would just say, "roll for why you're here," and consult the table.

In all honesty I will do exactly that, however I know one person in the group that gets a little shitty when he rolls something he doesn't like. It is my hope that he will see how much of a laugh this is for the other players and join in the fun more fully. I hope to add to this in time and get it out to a huge random table.

Mostly though will also spark ideas for me and probably stock some of the dungeon for me without thinking

Speaking of which I have some dungeon stocking to do in prep for tonight's opening game!

I love it...thanks!

That's awesome!

I hope I can use that sometime in the future in one of my games.

For the record, the inaugural use of the table in my games led to:

9: You had a duel, and.. -- 66-90: Won in a freakish manner (eg: meteor\lightning bolt\etc). People start murmuring witch\warlock in your presence.
Robbo the Halfling fighter chose to have the duel won when an unusually large crocodile ate his opponent. In other news, the River Rosten, next to which the game started is now filled with crocodiles. So far the you fighter has had trouble getting passage on a ship due to him being a warlock and therefore unlucky, forcing the party to walk

10: Dirt Poor -- 61-80: Invested in the wrong merchant. 50% of starting wealth gone.
Ginger the Elf thief, convinced that the merchant hasn't fleeced her but instead has been waylaid somewhere has set out to reclaim her wealth.

In non-in game terms, the tables were a laugh (as I hoped) and managed to get everyone in the mood to game. Best of all, it immediately got some unexpected and fun roleplay happening.. another big plus.
For dirt poor, I suggest you make sure the player writes down the order they purchase things and then cross them off to get back to their adjusted starting wealth value. It was pretty funny