Random Tables in Fate

A random table

When you bring up random tables, you can easily find as many advocates as detractors. I find a little bit of
randomness spices up a game - it promotes improvisational thinking and interest. After all, who doesn't want to see what the results of the treasure table/grevious wound chart/star system generator turn out to be?

Fate's a system that, on the surface, doesn't seem like it's too conducive to randomness. There's a strong bell curve, players have a measure of narrative buy-in, and if that fails, they have fate points to modify the results. A few people took on the challenge, explored that random table space within Fate, and the results were promising. If you're not familiar with David S. Goodwin's Fate triangle table, Mike Olson posted a quick summary of why and how it works. Fred Hicks then posted a variant of the same table that reads each individual die. I took their work (as many others have done) and made a few tables of my own.

Random Ritual Components

I use this table for my monster-hunting bikers game. It provides a lot of flavor to what otherwise might just be a Create Advantage roll. Furthermore, some of the strange combinations demand attention, and promotes play based around getting the components. Hilariously (perhaps), "powdered love" has ended up as one of my group's staples for magical rituals, and after some disgusting but inventive ways to obtain ingredients that would pass muster, they've all agreed that crushed-up Viagra should do the trick in the future.

				First Word	Second Word	x/81
+	+	+	+	Noneuclidian	Dreams	1
+	+	+	_	Small Animal’s	Night	4
+	+	+	-	Rotten	Hate	4
+	+	_	_	Oil of	Heart	6
+	_	_	_	Imaginary Animal’s	Love	4
+	+	_	-	Target’s	Blood/Fluids/Flesh	12
+	+	-	-	A Drop Of	Food/Booze	6
+	_	_	-	Powdered	Hair/Clippings/Feather	12
_	_	_	_	Innocent	Math	1
+	_	-	-	Caster’s	Salt/Silver/Iron	12
_	_	_	-	Deity’s	Gasoline/Fuel	4
+	-	-	-	Devil’s	Daylight	4
_	_	-	-	Geometric	Bones/Ashes	6
_	-	-	-	Dead Man’s	Grave Dirt	4
-	-	-	-	Living	Cardinal Direction	1

Operation RANDOM SHENANIGANS

This table's more for flavor than anything else.

				First Word	Second Word	x/81
+	+	+	+	DONKEY	PUNCH	1
+	+	+	_	THUNDER	FIST	4
+	+	+	-	VENGEFUL	SAVIOR	4
+	+	_	_	BLAZING	LIGHTNING	6
+	_	_	_	HUSKY	CLAW	4
+	+	_	-	FLAMING	SWORD	12
+	+	-	-	BLACKEST (OR PICK A COLOR)	EAGLE	6
+	_	_	-	STEADFAST	SHIELD	12
_	_	_	_	LAZY	PANDA	1
+	_	-	-	ENDURING	THUNDER	12
_	_	_	-	BROKEN	VENGEANCE	4
+	-	-	-	RAGING	CROWN	4
_	_	-	-	EAGLE	LION	6
_	-	-	-	CRESCENT	NIGHT	4
-	-	-	-	THROBBING	PRINCESS	1