Author Topic: looking for the most extensive random tables  (Read 2614 times)

Offline JohnnyMayHymn

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looking for the most extensive random tables
« on: October 22, 2017, 05:37:30 AM »
I'm making something ridiculous and looking for the most extensive random tables, don't care which system (anything from D&D to pathfinder, OSRIC or whatever), I also don't care whether it's cannon, home-brew, 3rd party or "licensed official content", books or websites.

Looking for everything random: encounters, NPCs, villages, dungeons, story plots, items, etc. everything.

I know that most DM/GM guides are going to have a lot of tables, and the complete list would be ridiculous, but which ones really went crazy overboard with the random tables?

Edit: Apparently, there's a whole subreddit for that called BehindTheTables they have a TON of random tables.
« Last Edit: May 12, 2019, 01:07:04 AM by JohnnyMayHymn »
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Offline ketaro

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Re: looking for the most extensive random tables
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2017, 06:04:59 AM »
Have you ever looked at Hackmaster?

Offline nijineko

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Re: looking for the most extensive random tables
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2017, 04:13:42 PM »
Rolemaster, otherwise known as "Chart"master.

Also, might I suggest you check here, however, be warned, you are almost certain to be offended if you actually read any of the rulebooks currently referenced as the unholy trinity, at least one of which has random tables for figuring out sizes of various anatomical bits.

Please note, that I have never played (or read) any of those three myself, though I am forced to admit that I have actually played one of the previous title holders, which has formulas for stuff like how hard you can exhale and massive tables of randomly generated powers, one of which table entry is "get every power in the book".
« Last Edit: October 22, 2017, 04:28:49 PM by nijineko »

Offline JohnnyMayHymn

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Re: looking for the most extensive random tables
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2017, 12:37:02 AM »
Hackmaster, Rolemaster, interesting, I'll look into those.

I had heard of the infamous FATAL, while I am using a lot of tables, ... I'm not going there, if you know what I mean.

Thanks for the replies!
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Offline Skyrock

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Re: looking for the most extensive random tables
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2017, 07:30:09 AM »
Most extensive single random table are clearly the various Central Casting books: https://rpggeek.com/rpgseries/2519/central-casting

It is essentially ~100 pages of a linked series of random tables to generate a random character background, with some very bizarre possibilities that can derail a campaign before it even begins (such as inheriting a working time machine).

Offline kitep

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Re: looking for the most extensive random tables
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2017, 03:40:19 PM »
The book "Hero Builder's Guide" contains a lot of tables for background info about a character.

Offline JohnnyMayHymn

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Re: looking for the most extensive random tables
« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2017, 11:54:10 PM »
I thought central casting was another system at first, but I guess it's more of a cross-system random table thing, interesting.

and yea, I would have totally missed the "Hero Builder's Guide", I was probably never going to open that book ever again, turns out there's some name lists by race in the back too, neat.
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Offline kitep

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Re: looking for the most extensive random tables
« Reply #7 on: October 31, 2017, 04:00:05 AM »
You probably already have them, but the DMG 3.5 has some tables in it too.
p 44 - One Hundred Adventure Ideas
p 78 - Random Door Types
p 82 - Random Traps by CR level
p 94 - Random Weather
p 129 - One Hundred Traits

I used to use the one hundred traits table a lot when I had an unexpected need for a talkative NPC.  Helped me not to fall into default NPC mode where they all have the same personality.

And let's not forgot the old mixing potions table from D&D 1.0(?)


« Last Edit: October 31, 2017, 04:01:55 AM by kitep »