randomtableoftheweek

Tavern rogue NPC gallery

You need some shady characters in a tavern in a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Roll 1d12 per column to generate characters and backstory! Dice Character Looks Skill Last Job Bond/employer Keeps.. 1 Cornelia, a bounty hunter Wears foreign clothes, tries to avoid conversation Can open any common lock in seconds Escaped a prisonContinue reading “Tavern rogue NPC gallery”

Animal Companion Exploration

Two of my players have animal companions. An owl and a dog. The players want the animals to be able to explore. This table is for them. We will roll it whenever their companions are used in exploration in a dungeon or the wilderness. Dice Outcome when in wilderness Outcome when in dungeon 1-10 TheContinue reading “Animal Companion Exploration”

What’s in that cell?

Sometimes, the party ends up in jail and they need to escape. Or tour the prison section of a dungeon. Or peek into a cell for some reason. In those times, roll on this table do determine the result of the ever-burning (ok, maybe not) question: what’s in that cell? Roll 2d8, will ya? DiceContinue reading “What’s in that cell?”

Graveyards

Today I went for a long walk and passed through multiple graveyards. Each one similar to the others, and yet different and unique in its own way. One was an area with ordered trees and even-cut grass where you could feel the atmosphere of respectful quiet. Another cemetery was a park, with wild grass, oldContinue reading “Graveyards”

Local delicacies

There are a lot of food, plant and mushroom tables in D&D and the OSR. Some of the best I have seen are in several issues of Wormskin magazine. The book “Fungi of the Far realms” also looks great, though I personally have not used it. Here is a table you can use to addContinue reading “Local delicacies”

Bridges in a dungeon

In a world where I am good at this and have endless time, I would write a book similar to the Tome of adventure design for procedural dungeon generation. I am aware there are a lot of procedural dungeon generation sites, books and ideas. Many of them are very good, especially when it comes toContinue reading “Bridges in a dungeon”

Ambush!

So, you are a DM, running a game in the wilderness (or in a large dungeon), and you rolled a random encounter. But you don’t want to make it boring. As always, the key is tactics, environment and asymmetric combat. This table generates various ambush situations to help avoiding simple frontal engagements where D&D degeneratesContinue reading “Ambush!”

Desert encounters

A random encounter table for desert hex, journey or adventure. The desert envisioned here is of the “saharan” variety, rather than something like the Arizona or central asian deserts. I am sure those types of environments also work – but a lot of stuff here kind of presupposes sand! Also, while making this table, IContinue reading “Desert encounters”

Long-distance travel and trade networks

I took a train today, for the first time in a year. It was great! In fact, I am writing this table on said train. To celebrate this moment, here is a “worldbuilding” table that tries to help you, DM, answer the crucial question: how do people get around in your world? How are peopleContinue reading “Long-distance travel and trade networks”

Books and scrolls

A short table with book descriptions, some details to interact with, and some magical effects to stuff your dungeon library or a wizard’s study. Obviously, there are quite a wealth of tables for books, so I tried to give something that players would want to interact with and can be rolled on on the spotContinue reading “Books and scrolls”