The best tool for the no prep gamemaster is the random table.
A random table is simply a list of items, objects, people, places, situations, complications that are given a number so that dice may be rolled to chose one at random.
The random table is the gamemaster’s most faithful best friend.
Random Tables Cut Out the Need for Session Prep
We’ve all heard the horror stories about gamemasters who spent 20, 30, 40 hours in a week preparing for a session only to have their players cancel.
This is soul-crushing and I can tell you I’ve been here many times. It is my mission to stop this from ever happening again.
Random tables eliminate the need for role-playing session preparation. There I said it.
I know there are gamemasters who will argue with me about that statement, but that’s okay.
It doesn’t change the fact that random tables can answer every question a player can ask, provide a setting and locations and even give adventure ideas on the fly.
Let the Dice Tell the Story
Using a random table allows the dice to tell the story. Some will cry foul. However, the dice always drive the story in other cases.
For example, if the barbarian swings his two-handed sword and the roll says he missed, that is going to affect the story in some way.
If the diplomatic character rolls really well and convinces the queen to allow the players to dig up the sacred tree in the middle of her garden. Well, then the story has been affected by a dice roll.
Why shouldn’t we then allow the dice to tell the story and other cases as well?
For example, at the beginning of the session why not just roll on a random jobs or rumors table?
Give your player’s options to choose one of those or a couple of those to investigate.
The dice just told the story just like they would at any other time.
All gamemasters cry out in one voice, “But I don’t know what to do! I don’t know what guard a caravan means! I don’t have anything planned!”
Well, that’s part of the fun.
Rolling on the random table for the adventure allows you to think on your feet. It also allows you not to know what is going to happen so you can be surprised and get caught up in the story along with your players.
Don’t Waste Time Filling dungeon Rooms
One of the worst things a GM can do is to fill every single room within a dungeon or a building with some cool and interesting objects or encounters.
This may seem counterintuitive.
Of course, you want cool and interesting things for your players to encounter as they search the dungeon or explore a large office building.
However, if you create something to go into every room of a dungeon and your players don’t explore them. Or they decide they don’t even want to enter the dungeon at all, your time was wasted.
But there is a solution.
Simply use a random table during the session to fill the rooms with interesting encounters or objects.
The key here is during the session.
If players enter the room roll on the table or better yet have your players roll.
Then the situations and complications as well as the objects in the room and come to life right then and there when needed instead of being mapped out ahead of time.
Never leave tons of cool stuff unexplored and never waste your time.
I love random tables. They are my best friend when running a session.
In fact, I would rather have a book of random tables while GMing then a rulebook for the system.
Players Want to Search Everything
Using random tables also comes in handy because players want to search everything. If you’ve been playing tabletop role-playing games for any length of time you know this is true.
The gamemaster can describe the room as completely empty, but the players want to search it anyway.
Random tables save GMs tons of time and give you exciting fun story hooks and objects that you can give to your players randomly so you don’t have to think about it.
I find that using random search tables really connects the players to the game. I have seen players get extremely excited and when the search table comes out.
Why? There’s a bit of mystery. They do not know what they will get and neither does the gamemaster.
There’s also value in finding certain objects. It’s part of the fun of the game for the players and the GM.
Players can also just get to know certain numbers on the table and kind of wait for those to be rolled.
The anticipation of doing something with those objects or wanting to explore something if they know, for example, number 74 is a map to an ancient library.
They may be hoping to roll 74 so they
There are plenty of random tables that they simply do not enrich the characters, but give them items to exercise their imaginations on.
Perhaps a random RPG table contains items like scraps of leather, small pieces of metal, canvas, hides, and tanned skins.
These things, while worthless on the first glance, can always be used by the players for creative solutions to complications during the adventure.
Searching is Important for the Game
Searching is a sense of reward for the actions that the players have just taken.
After defeating the evil guards, searching the crime lord’s warehouse is an exciting moment because not only do they get useful items or gain money but they’re also hurting the crime lord.
However, if your players walk into the warehouse and begin to search it and you don’t have a random table.
Then you have to know everything that is in that warehouse before the session begins.
Who’s got time for that?
If you have a set of random tables, you can fill the warehouse interesting items quickly and easily just by having your players roll on the random tables.
RPG Random Tables Answer Questions You Don’t have Answers To
Random tables can also answer questions that you don’t have answers to.
A player asks, what’s the waitress’s name? A player asks what kind of booths are there in the marketplace?
Does the blacksmith have a horse for sale? Is the guard asleep? Is the door locked? Where’s the potion shop? What’s on the ceiling? Are there any chickens?
Pull out a random table and roll. The answers are there when needed and not before.
Just think about it, what if you planned to have the blacksmith selling a horse, but the players never asked about it?
Then you wasted your time.
How to Use RPG Random Tables
Needless to say, random tables can be used in a variety of ways.
I think there are better ways to use them, but there’s no real wrong way to use a random table.
Well, except not using them at all.
Gamemaster Rolls Before the Session
One method of using random tables is that the gamemaster rolls before the session.
Say there is an old hermit’s cabin that will feature in the next session of an RPG campaign. The gamemaster takes out a random table rolls and fills the cabin with certain objects or items a few days before the session.
I don’t like this method.
First, it’s preparing for the section which I don’t have time to do.
Second, it opens up the possibility of creating things that the players don’t see or will never touch.
What if they don’t come across the hermit’s cabin? What if they turn right instead of left when they see the cabin? What if they see the hermit’s cabin and burn it down?
You just wasted time you could have spent with your significant other, your kids, watching that show your behind on, or reading that book you’ve been trying to finish.
Game Master Rolls During the Session
The game master rolling during the session is something I do utilize on occasion and it can be very helpful.
But it always depends on what the random table is or what I am trying to determine.
Two quick hints:
Speed – If I need something fast, then I will roll. If asking the players to roll will disrupt the flow of the game or will distract the players at a key moment, I will roll.
Limit Player Knowledge – If the answer to a question or the outcome of a situation will spoil the players fun or reveal information that is better hidden.
For example, a player may ask if the party is being followed. I don’t know the answer since I wasn’t even thinking about that. I would roll randomly (and secretly) to see if they are being followed.
Then I would have the player roll their Perception (or similar skill). Depending on the roll, I would then tell the player if they are being followed or not.
Players Roll
Having players roll is my preferred method. There are a number of reasons for this, so let’s break them down.
Players control their fate – If the roll is bad and the thing rolled is terrible for the players then it’s their fault because they rolled.
There’s no real arguing with this and this is what I like.
If I roll on the table behind a GM screen and I say oh it’s the worst thing that can happen to your characters.
Then I have to face questions of whether or not am I being fair.
The last thing I want to do while I’m trying to have fun is to talk about how I’m being unfair to someone’s
There is too much conflict that can happen between GMs and players for me to secretly hand out fates all of the time.
Having the players roll eliminates that conflict right off the bat.
Greater player agency – It gives the players more agency. They are controlling the world even if it is a random roll.
They get to hold their fates in their hands and that is a powerful feeling in a tabletop RPG and in real life truth be told.
Less work for the game master – Also, it just takes more decisions and responsibilities off me as the gamemaster.
Gamemasters have enough to think about during every session, so anything that takes something off their plate is great.
Plus I want to be able to think about other things during the session, like what’s over the next hill or where the missing ring can be located.
Self-reward – When a player searches something and roll on a random table and the outcome is a great item for the character or the party, there is a feeling of accomplishment.
If the GM simply hands out everything, there was no risk or sense that they added to the story.
It is always more rewarding for a player to know that they rolled well and got the magic item, than to just be handed a magic sword.
The Random Table is Your Servant
Always remember that the table is your servant you can do whatever you want with it.
Some people don’t roll. They just pick items off the table that they think are interesting and that they can run in
That’s fine, however, I do think they are missing out on something.
There is a magic in the pure randomness of a die roll.
That shouldn’t be discounted quickly just because you think something might be a hard result or that you can’t handle that kind of situation.
Some of the most memorable and engaging RPG sessions that I have ever run have been the result of random rolls.
That said if the table provides something that is just simply unworkable then ignore it.
This happens on occasion because obviously random tables can’t be made to exactly fit in line with every session or campaign or world.
If something does truly not fit then just ignore it. Roll again or have the player roll again.
But always consider every result before you reject it. There just may be gold you are passing by.
Coming Up
In the next post, there will be more practical tips on how to run great RPG sessions without prep. Don’t miss a post and get