What Are Collections on Chartopia and How Are They Used?

Updated

A Collection on Chartopia is a grouping of related random tables or generators bundled under one theme, campaign, or RPG system. Instead of hunting for individual charts one by one, you open a Collection and get every table that belongs together. This is most useful when you are prepping or running a session and need several related rolls in one place — for example, a set of tables for a single campaign setting or a specific game system.

How Collections differ from individual charts

Chartopia's homepage separates its content into two browse paths: Featured Charts and Featured Collections.

  • A chart is a single random table or generator. Examples visible on the homepage include "VtM V5 - Vampire Generator (v1.23)", "Fantasy Adventure Icons", and "Medieval Menu Generator".
  • A Collection is a container that gathers multiple charts under one label. Examples from the homepage include "Fatebenders generators", "Starforged Oracles", "Zombie's Vampire the Masquerade V5 Collection", "Stars Without Number - Revised (Free Edition)", and "Moldvay Basic D&D Treasure Types".

So a chart answers one question ("what's on the menu?"), while a Collection answers a whole category of questions for a given context.

What Collections are used for

Based on the collections shown on the site, they serve a few practical purposes:

  • By game system — "Stars Without Number - Revised (Free Edition)" and "Moldvay Basic D&D Treasure Types" group tables that only make sense within that ruleset.
  • By campaign or setting — "Fatebenders generators" and "Starforged Oracles" collect the generators a specific game or campaign needs.
  • By theme — "Zombie's Vampire the Masquerade V5 Collection" gathers Vampire: The Masquerade V5 material in one place.

For a game master, this means you can bookmark or open a single Collection at the table and roll from any of its tables without switching between separate chart pages.

Browsing and finding Collections

The homepage surfaces collections in two ways:

  1. Latest Collections — recently added or updated collections, such as "Structure chasse magique", "Wings of Fire Name Generators", "Fantasy Map Creation", and "Blaydon Grange - Solo Edition".
  2. Featured Collections — a curated selection, currently showing Fatebenders, Starforged Oracles, the VtM V5 collection, Stars Without Number, and Moldvay Basic D&D Treasure Types.

There is also a Quick search with category shortcuts (NPCs, Locations, Encounters, Name generators, Loot, D&D 5e Spells, Monsters), which is the faster route when you already know the type of content you want rather than the collection it lives in.

When to use a Collection vs. a single chart

Your situation Better choice
You need one specific roll (a name, a menu, a piece of loot) A single chart
You are prepping a session for one system or setting A Collection
You want to browse what exists for a game Featured or Latest Collections
You know the content category but not the source Quick search

Practical note

Collections are a browsing and organization layer, not a separate kind of generator — the actual rolling still happens on the individual charts inside them. If you want to build your own grouping, Chartopia's navigation includes Create Chart and Create Account options, and the site describes itself as a place to "discover, create and manage your random table and random generator collection."