The Game Master's Book of Astonishing Random Tables

Product details

More than 300 random tables designed to help you build a new world from scratch or take your existing RPG campaign to new levels of creativity and excitement. 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 "colour" 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. The Game Master's Book of Astonishing Random Tables solves these problems and more by providing hundreds of tables for nearly every worldbuilding and gameplay situation. Need to know what the local food is like? Roll for it. Need to know how the city's plumbing is organized or if they have a sewer system? Roll for it. Need to know what specific pathology drives the mad draconian warlord just beyond the city's gates? Roll for it. Want to determine what a sorcerer's spell effects look like or what unique way they cast their spells? You know the answer! When warranted, many of the table results are "enhanced" with supplemental information, such as in the local government or architecture examples noted above. Other tables will have a branching element, providing a path to fleshing out larger scale subjects that require more detail than can be provided with a single table. The book will also include three one-shot adventures that help GMs put the book's tables into play right away, so that they can see exactly how helpful and enhancing they can be. They'll also learn that filling in the unexpected details of an adventure with random roll results can change the nature of the adventure each time it's played. When encountering a simple beggar, for example, the entire direction of the adventure may change if that poor soul has knowledge of a temple's secret underground vault, which the players are trying to break into. It'll change the encounter even more if that information is wrong. Finally, the book will also feature a complete subject matter index, making it super simple to find just the right table when needed, without having to fumble through the pages, as required by other such books. The Game Master's Book of Astonishing Random Tables fills in the holes of gameplay, enriching every scene, setting, character and event, while also adding new, unexpected elements to shake things up and keep players on their toes.