Random tables are one of the great pillars of OSR gaming. I will die on that hill. Even if random tables were less widely used in D&D historically, they were fully embraced with the OSR. Hell, many classic OSR books are nothing but random tables. There are settings that are entirely composed of random tables. And I am a huge fan.
Of course you can't possibly use them all. You might be tempted to say there are "too many" random tables. You would be wrong. There cannot be too many. It is not possible.
Because the purpose and effect of random tables is... random. Stochastic, as the nerds say. It's a shotgun effect. No one expects you to use every random table that finds its way in front of your face. You use the ones that are either required by the game's rules or the ones that inspire you. The rest can sit quietly. They demand nothing of you, so let them be.
Here are some random tables I created in December, inspired by the #dicember challenge, which I learned about through Dyson Logos. I did not stick with any prompts.
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A good random table can't be beat. My rule of thumb is: Every result ought to be interesting. A great random table has no boring results.
ReplyDeleteYea that's good advice. I am guilty of having some "nothing" entries on some tables. But I think I should avoid that because if there's nothing, then the GM wouldn't be rolling on a table. Let the GM decide if this is a nothing situation and just avoid the roll.
DeleteI love me some random tables. They empower a DM to do some very sandboxy things, as players can kinda go off the rails, and you can quickly roll up a new area, cave, temple, town, or whatever in the time it takes people to take a potty break.
ReplyDeleteI'm of the firm belief that a table of names is in the DM's essential kit. And you should make that table yourself, because it needs to fit your setting.
also a table of rumors, which gives you something for the NPC's to talk about, in lieu of a lore dump, etc...
During xmas break the kids impromptu wanted to play D&D, so we did, and I put the adventure together in real time using rando tables.
Yay!