Making Tables for your game

Making Tables for your game

Random Tables

There's only one kind of table that's truly a random table - and that's a table that only uses one die. Let me show you a 1d6 table:

1 Halfling

2 Half-Orc

3 Human

4 Elf

5 Dwarf

6 Gnome

In the table above, there's a chance that any roll could produce any result. A 1 in 6 chance for each item on the table. Now let's expand the table to a 2d6.

2 Half-Elf

3 Halfling

4 Gnome

5 Human

6 Half-Orc

7 Human

8 Half-Orc

9 Elf

10 Human

11 Dwarf

12 Human

Here, the odds of getting any roll have changed. Now, you're looking at Craps odds. If you've never heard of Craps, look it up - it's a very interesting game that a lot of people have somewhat success at. But I recommend you roleplay instead of gamble - Casinos don't stay in business by their customers winning.

The breakdown is like this:

2 6th Most

3 5th Most

4 4th Most

5 Third Most

6 Second Most

7 Most Likely

8 Second Most

9 Third Most

10 4th Most

11 5th Most

12 6th Most

When you put your table together, you can use these odds to place your table entries from most likely to least likely. You'll never have a truly random roll, because the chance of both dice showing up with the same numbers on each dice AND showing up at the end of the spectrum (1s or 6s) at the same time is now worse than the chance of the total of the dice averaging out - which is 7.

Each slot should be a 1 in 11 chance (there are 11 slots on that table) - but it's not.

It's skewed in favor of an average roll.

You can get a 7 on the roll with a 1 and a 6, a 2 and a 5, a 3 and a 4, a 4 and a 3, a 5 and a 2, and a 6 and a 1. If you used different colored dice, that would make more sense. There are 6 combinations that can give a 7 so it's a 6 in 36 chance of getting a 7.

Now, you can get a 6 on the roll with a 1 and a 5, a 2 and a 4, a 3 and a 3, a 4 and a 2, and a 5 and a 1. You only have a 5 in 36 chance of getting a 6.

But you have the same chance of getting an 8.

If you put the same item on your table in both the 6 and the 8 spot, now you have a 10 in 36 chance of rolling that item (and the best bets in Craps, if you ignore the payout amount - which would be smart)

Now a roll of 5 would have combinations of 1 and 4, 2 and 3, 3 and 2, and 4 and 1. You have a 4 in 36 chance of getting a 5.

And the same chance of getting a 9.

To get a roll of 4, the combos are 1 and 3, 2 and 2, and 3 and 1. So you have a 3 in 36 chance of getting a 4.

The same chance for a 10.

For 3, the combos are 1 and 2, and 2 and 1. A 2 in 36 chance of getting a 3.

Same chance to get an 11.

And now the rarest roll is a 2 - SnakeEyes. A 1 and a 1. There is only 1 in 36 chance in getting a 2.

And the same chance to get a 12.

So let's look at the table again:

2 - 1 in 36 chance

3 - 2 in 36 chance

4 - 3 in 36 chance

5 - 4 in 36 chance

6 - 5 in 36 chance

7 - 6 in 36 chance

8 - 5 in 36 chance

9 - 4 in 36 chance

10 - 3 in 36 chance

11 - 2 in 36 chance

12 - 1 in 36 chance

So now, it's all in how you arrange the items you place in each slot on the table.

Taking a look back to the original 2d6 table above, you can now see how important each slot is.

2 Half-Elf - 1 in 36 chance

3 Halfling - 2 in 36 chance

4 Gnome - 3 in 36 chance

5 Human - 4 in 36 chance

6 Half-Orc - 5 in 36 chance

7 Human - 6 in 36 chance

8 Half-Orc - 5 in 36 chance

9 Elf - 4 in 36 chance

10 Human - 3 in 36 chance

11 Dwarf - 2 in 36 chance

12 Human - 1 in 36 chance

So, to total those up, you have:

Human at a total of 14 in 36 chance (4 + 6 + 3 + 1) - almost half

Half-Orc totals at 10 in 36 chance (5 + 5)

Elf at 4 in 36 chance

Gnome at 3 in 36 chance

Both Halfling and Dwarf at 2 in 36 chance each

And Half-Elf at 1 chance in 36.

Doesn't look so random now, does it?

This is how you can build a table for encounters and such. If you wanted to make a Creature Encounter table, you make your list of creatures and then assign points to each creature based on how many there are or how often it's seen, how important it is, etc... and get a total of 36 points, and then assign the creatures to slots on the table based on how many points you've assigned to each. A '4 in 36 chance' is 4 points, a '6 in 36 chance' is 6 points, etc...

Here's a real world example:

Around the house here (I live in a rural area), these are the ground critters that I see (not including flying birds or squirrels):

Coyote

Deer

Turkey

Rabbit

Opossum

I just saw a nice herd of about 15 Deer the other day, about a week before there were about 10 Turkey, I see 3 Rabbits regularly, an Opossum or two fairly often, and I hear what I figure is about a pack of 5 Coyote at night.

I could build an encounter table using these animals:

15 Deer (I'll make this 16 just to round out the table)

10 Turkey

3 Rabbits

2 Opossum

5 Coyote

That gives me 36 points to distribute across the table.

2 - Rabbit

3 - Opossum

4 - Deer

5 - Coyote

6 - Turkey

7 - Deer

8 - Turkey

9 - Deer

10 - Deer

11 - Rabbit

12 - Coyote

And that would be the encounter table for ground critters in my area.

You can do the same for just about any kind of table.