Reddit reviews Table Fables: A collection of tables for the weary game master

Needs? Dice and the PHB.

Wants? Lots of generators, luckily some great ones have been appearing on the app stores for mobile.
I personally love random tables, Table Fables is a great little book I picked up not long ago.
and if you are playing online, pyromancers is a great dungeon creators tool.

I've got this fun little book that I love, called Table Fables. It's a set of random die roll charts on lots of different things from menu items at a tavern to odd trinkets to dastardly potions. The book also has a soft touch cover that's fun to feel. They also have a digital version for sale.

The potion table is my favorite. I've had a character decide to drink one and vomit up gold coins for 1d4 minutes. Another time a character drank one that made him ecstatically euphoric (happy) about everything for 1d4 hours, including when he got stabbed later. This one was awesome because one of my heavy roleplay players was the one who drank it.

Characters in my game have found a fancy case of the "good" cigars (2gp/cigar!), rotten jars of strawberry jam, a magical spice pouch (1/dawn, if the spice pouch is empty, I roll a 1d4 oz of a random 1d20 spice off the spice table on page 43), and many more things. There are tables for food, food quality, npcs, dreams and nightmares, random magic and non-magic items. It's really entertaining to use.

It's pricey, but AEG's Ultimate Toolbox has tons of good stuff in it. I've also heard good things about the Table Fables books available on Amazon, but don't have any personal experience with them.
 
Lately, Hubris has been my go-to for adding in weird terrain features and plot hooks.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1542678595/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1524433086&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=tables+fables

I've heard a good idea is to have a list of random names in your notebook, whenever you need to name something just fill in who that name goes to.

Alex - jewellery merchant in yartar
Ben - llama herder by goldenfields
Patricia -

You know, like that

As mentioned by u/pb_rpg the Waterdeep City Encounters of DMsGuild is a great asset to have to hand. Additionally, the book Table Fables comes in handy quite frequently when improvising pickpocketed items or fleshing out shops.

A piece of paper with male, female and family names. I use OneNote for my campaign notes and i use Discord for Cam-Calls and Screensharing battlemaps via Affinity Photo. I also use Table Fables, Table Fables II and the Character Compendium (books). Usually also some scribble paper.

Lots of great advice here. I'll try not to repeat too much.

Regarding your struggle to describe things, have you tried using tables? If I draw a blank on what a room looks like, I grab a list of 20 or 100 room descriptions and roll some dice.

There's a ton of free ones everywhere, and here is a list of all the tables in the DMG. If you want to really break it down, scroll down to "Dressing and Embelishment" here for 100 floors, 100 walls, 100 ceilings, and much much more. Finally, Table Fables has a bunch of good ones in one neat little package. My copy is filled up with tabs and gets used almost every week.


Regarding your players not engaging in RP, I solved this problem in my game by putting them in situations that they had to act their way out of.

For example, I introduced a lodge run by retired adventurers that have valuable information about monster weaknesses and such. They're just a bunch of old dude who want to drink and relive their glory days all day long; so to apply for membership you had to tell a tale of your most glorious adventures. Whomever told the best tale wins! Even if the RP is cringey, most players will come up with some pretty hilarious stuff and everyone will have a good time.

Another idea is to give them a mission where they have to assume a false identity and deceive someone. Or just make them need to persuade somebody. Royalty or nobility work great for this because they don't care about gold and have bodyguards, so they can't be bribed or intimidated; making the party's only option to engage in some RP.

Another good trick too spice up combat a little is to have your monsters say creepy shit during battle. Little things can go a long way to adding some depth or making a generic orc encounter more memorable.

Lastly, check out r/dmacademy. Super supportive community and tons of great advice.

Good luck!

This book has some of the best tables in it I've ever used. Other DMs around me borrow it on sessions as well. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1542678595/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you have a little cash to spend, pick up Table Fables I and II. It’s a gigantic collection of tables to randomly generate anything you could want.

Table Fables I

Table Fables II

Table Fables! It's a list of helpful D&D tables for weather, items, status conditions, etc.

??? Like for inspiration?


For world building/city feels/flavor I like "Invisible Cities", which is a collection of tales from Marco Polo put together by Italo Calvino, translated from italian by William Weaver (here's a link I found on google for it)


For character creation, honestly read any fantasy. Wheel of Time has characters you can easily make character sheets for, excepting maybe Rand al'Thor. I also just read "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, which was great for learning how a wizard/bard might work, as well as an innkeeper. Also, recorded book is boss.


But if you want to buy just one book, and you want something amazing and fast and simple I highly recommend "Table Fables" by Madeline Hale (it's on amazon for less than $11). This book has roll-to-make lists for almost everything, from PC and NPC creation to random loot, to monster attacks! This helps especially with random encounters and smoothing-over awkward "wait I have nothing planned for THAT direction"-moments, it's great! Here's a link to that too!.


Hope that helps, that's what I use, PM me if you need anymore help :) also, I think the more you read the more fun these games get

Check out Table Fables. It has a good table to roll from.

I make use of a wide variety of tools ranging from donjon to Table Fables and a bunch of things in between. I would like to say that I take the time to generate a list of names in advance, but in practice I don't really do that and I will just whip out one of many tools and have that name prepared in a few short seconds with a description if I can't think of one on my own.

However, if you are more... motivated than I am then you should make sure to have a list already made. Also, remember to cross names off the list as you use them.

Table Fables 1 and Table Fables 2 are a couple pretty awesome books for worldbuilding inspiration. Volume 1 has a bunch of tables with inspiration for loot, magical items, tavern names, festivals and celebrations, etc. Even menu inspiration for what's being served in that tavern you just had to name. Volume 2 has a lot more general world inspiration- villain motives, quests and plot hooks, etc. Kind of like a big collection of writing prompts to get a story moving. They aren't edition-specific or game-specific, so if your friend GMs other fantasy-type games, these would still be relevant.