Oracles and Tables
Some of the most useful tools for a GM are tables and oracles. In it's most basic form random tables can aid a GM to make decisions or perhaps throw the adventure in a different direction. This can spur the GM on to think of new scenarios or problems for the players.
The most basic tables are percentage tables, for examples of their use see the Weather in Games post. It's quite easy to create them as you can set a percentage for the most obvious choices, so if you know that a day should be overcast half the time we set the percentage as 1-50%. However, although they may have more results in the table on a single roll you are likely to roll any result on the table.
2D6
These have been around since the early editions of D&D.
With 2D6 tables results are centred around the average with 6-8 being rolled 44% of the time. They can be used for most things when there are a few result to choose from. Examples: weather, creature reactions, morale.
It can be quite easy to think of five possible results.
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 2 | Poor |
| 3-5 | Worse than average |
| 6-8 | Average result |
| 9-11 | Better than average |
| 12 | Great |
3D6
If you want a choice of more results (7 instead of 5), then 3D6 tables are also handy. They are also weighted towards the middle of the table, with 48% of results occurring between 9-12.
It can provide more extreme results, and the table can hold more information.
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 3 | Extremely bad result |
| 4-5 | Very bad result |
| 6-8 | Worse than expected |
| 9-12 | Average, as expected |
| 13-15 | Better than expected |
| 16-17 | Very good result |
| 18 | Extremely good result |
Oracles
These are my favourite GM tool and for these I use a simple D6. I ask the Oracle a question which has a Yes or No answer, Example: is it raining today.
| Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| 1 | No, and... |
| 2 | No |
| 3 | No, but |
| 4 | Yes, but |
| 5 | Yes |
| 6 | Yes, and... |
This is so simple, after a few times you don't even need to refer to the table, you soon know it.
Answer to is it's raining...
- No, and the sun is shining
- No
- No, but the air is damp and cool
- Yes, but there are some sunny spells
- Yes
- Yes, and it is very heavy with local flooding
We can can easily add a subtle variation to this table if the result is more likely or not.
| Result Expected | Dice Rolled |
|---|---|
| Very unlikely | 3d6 keep lowest |
| Unlikely | 2d6 keep lowest |
| Even Odds | 1d6 |
| Likely | 2d6 keep highest |
| Very Likely | 3d6 keep highest |
So, going back to our weather rolls, if it was sunny yesterday, and it's summertime. If the question is will it be sunny again tomorrow I may roll either 2 or 3D6 to decide if it is will be sunny again tomorrow, as that is likely.
I often use the oracle if the players ask something I am unsure about. So for example if they are in a small village and ask is there someone here who knows medicine I might consider this unlikely, roll 2D6 and keep the lowest result.
I hope you find this useful, I am currently looking at writing a simple freeform RPG using the Yes/No oracle, so stay tuned.