Random Tables

I did not come up through the D&D route of RPGs, so the random table was not something I used at the table unless for very certain circumstances, mostly as outcomes to certain in-game happenings: Sanity loss in CoC; mutations in WFRP, that kind of thing. I of course knew about random encounter tables and the like, but I did not use them. For me, encounters had to fit with the story. 

However, I was running a session of  'Tails of Equestria', where I was looking to beef up a session that was going too fast, so I overcame my hesitancy, and rolled on the table. The resulting encounter led to some cool role-playing by the players, and I was very happy with the way it worked out. This was enough to turn me round on what I had previously thought would be something that would just be too random to add to the story being told.

Jump forward a year or two, and I've been looking through a bunch of OSR games, some of which contain nothing but a bunch of random event tables. My new outlook has meant I've seen these more and more as a way to improvise and get good story out of a session, prompts to move things forward. I became a convert. I've even thought of writing my own.

Recently,  I went a step further, and ran a Call of Cthulhu game, with random event tables. It may have been a step too far...

I ran the players through the Goodman Games scenario 'The Lost Expedition' by Jon Hook. The Goodman Games line of Cthulhu scenarios got a bit of flack at the start of their run for looking and playing more like old style scenarios, maybe more in line with their DCC line than with the direction of modern Cthulhu adventures. They quickly righted their course, and headed off on their own direction, which led to some delightfully Pulp style adventures, even if they were not immediately sold as such. 'The Lost Expedition' is definitely planted squarely in the Pulp genre, with mutated dinosaurs, golden pyramids, and inter-dimensional travel. 

One of the inspirations this game book has kept from the DCC style game, is its reliance on Random tables at a couple of key moments in the scenario. One is the use of the Laboratory control console, and the other is when travelling through the Great White Space, or the interdimensional portals if you will. 

I decided to lean in to this, since it was a pulp game, and use the tables in game as written. The first use was when players were using a control panel in the lab of the pyramid. This led to random things happening, but none of them really moving the story forward. After a couple of uses of the panel, there was the question as to whether this trial and error was leading to an understanding of this very alien technology. The answer was, well, no not really, it's very complex. This may not have been the right answer in a Pulp game, and the choice to make that call lays at my feet, not an issue with the table per se.

The second table in the adventure is at the end, when they open a portal, and end up in what is essentially an infinite corridor full of doors. There is no distinguishing marks on any of the doors, and no way to know where to go to get home. This may be a fun ending to a convention scenario, and if the Keeper has their wits about them, this is a great jumping off point for another scenario, but as it played, the lack of way of knowing which was the way to go led to choice paralysis. With infinite choices, no choice can be made at all. In the end, I made the choice to tell the players outright, "there is no way to know how to get home, you're going to pick a door, then we're going to roll on a random table to see where you end up". I think this was the only way to move the game forward before the frustration set in.

So where am I now? I think I still like random tables much more than I used to, but my use in the last scenario means that I will temper their use somewhat going forward. As with all things in a game, they can be fun if used well. Good use of a tool inherently requires that it does not block or hinder player agency too much. I think where I was hitting a wall in this scenario was that if I had not said what was happening, and that I was going to roll on a random table, we would really have had no way for the players to go forward without more frustration.

As a final word on 'The Lost Expedition', this publication seems to be no longer in print, as is the case with the rest of the Goodman Games Age of Cthulhu line, but if you do manage to track down a copy, I recommend it as a great fun Pulp Cthulhu scenario. Please do not take this as in anyway a criticism of the scenario, but just the evolution of my thoughts on this particular GM tool.