The Game Master’s Book of Random Tables

Most Game Masters are familiar with random roll tables and the benefits and fun they provide. Most roll tables, however, help GMs determine specific things, but with a minimum of contextual information, such as size (Small, Medium, Large, etc.), a minimum of descriptive “color” such as items in a treasure hoard (4 gems worth 50 gp each; a +1 dagger; a wand of magic missiles), or a minimum of helpful information such as types of government (oligarchy; federalism; theocracy). In the moment, these snap results are helpful. But once put into play, they end up causing GMs even more work because once you’ve determined the local government is a federalism, for example, you have to know what a federalism is and how it functions, which requires time and research. Similarly, when rolling on a table to determine the predominant architectural style of a city’s buildings, a result of “Ionic Order” provides no help when the GM is actually called upon to describe what, exactly, that looks like.