Boundries, Chaos, and Creative Freedom

Why 3d6 tables make your solo RPG results feel more organic, less random, and a lot more interesting.

I love a random table. As a frequent (and admittedly lazy) GM, random tables offer a creative spark that can give a strong launch a campaign and keep it full of surprises for both my players and myself. But while basic tables are great, 3d6 tables can offer even more to your game - whether your playing solo, running for a group, or working on your own system. This is a useful tool to keep in your toolbox because it's equal parts structure and inspiration.

What Is a 3d6 Table?

Classic RPG random tables help game masters quickly generate monsters, encounters, treasure, or NPCs with a roll of the dice. The trouble is that those tables often produce flat encounters. A 3d6 table takes those static results and gives them momentum.

Each die represents one part of a larger story. The first gives you a subject, either a creature you encounter or a new discovery on the map. The second die adds action so you can describe what the subject is doing. The third die introduces a complication twist that gets the story rolling.

So instead of a simple “you encounter goblins,” you might roll goblins, stalking prey, but they’re starving and desperate. Suddenly, you have interesting decisions to make. Does their hunger make them reckless? Too weak to fight? Desperate enough to bargain? In a group game, this keeps encounters from blending together, but as a solo gamer, this structure offers a framework from which a story can grow.

The Paradox of Choice

In 2004, psychologist Barry Schwartz wrote The Paradox of Choice and argued that more choices did not necessarily make for a better experience. When infinite options are available, people tend to feel anxious that the choice they make will be “wrong” and they’ll miss out on a better option. It’s sort of like the “blank page paralysis” that artists and writers feel. When a blank page can be anything, people will often default to nothing rather than feel like what they started was a mistake.

Standard Random Encounter tables predominantly generate a monster type and leave further details up to the GM. There's nothing wrong with this sandbox style, but we've all played in games where stumbling upon the wandering monster means defaulting to combat. The open ended choices turn into repeating choices because it feels like the "correct" option. By using a 3d6 table in your game, you’ll narrow encounter choices but expand on interesting combinations of scenes. The end result is that you'll encourage stories to move forward in interesting and novel ways without getting mired in infinite choice.

How Does This Apply to Solo Games?

Solo play relies on “oracles” to make the decisions that would normally fall to a GM to answer. There are many ways to power oracles, but a 3d6 table offers a chance for you as a designer to give your game an aesthetic. Journaling prompts are one solution, but if they aren’t carefully crafted, a game can start to feel scripted. That’s great for a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, but not so hot for keeping players engaged and feeling like they are creating something unique. A 3d6 table adds an element of surprise with each handful of dice.

When random encounters are fine-tuned with actions and complications, stories begin to bloom. Part of what I love about RPGs is that they’re problem-solving practice with low stakes. A 3d6 table injects surprises that get you thinking and for me, that random element is what makes it exciting. Maybe this time the goblins are starving and hunting prey, but next time, they’re on the move and carrying something precious. Now your players have a familiar encounter (the goblins), but each time their paths cross, something new is happening.

Creating Your Own 3d6 Tables

There are plenty of 3d6 tables out there, but making your own can be just as fun. Start with your setting, then choose six monsters or NPCs that fit the location. These are your encounters. Next, brainstorm actions - things that encounters might be doing. It’s really important here to mix it up. Hunting, patrolling, scouting, and sparring are fine, but put them all in the same action table and your encounters may start to feel repetitive. Unexpected combinations immediately change the tone, and now you have “goblins celebrating” or “goblins panicking” and each of those leads to a very different story.

Finally, add complications. These are brief, open-ended twists that add nuance without dictating a specific story. Writing prompts can be a great source of inspiration, but keep complications short and suggestive. The goal is to inspire stories, not write them for the player.

You can also create 3d6 tables for locations. In the September issue of Yarns for One, Scrap Yarn Games' monthly newsletter, there is a 3d6 table for a harvest fair. The options I tend to use for locations are a little different than the ones I use for encounters. Instead of list of probable monsters or NPCs, I come up with a list of “finds” - places or items of note that your players come across. Instead of actions, I assign a mood for the area. What feeling do your players get when they come across or interact with a find? Finally, I add something unusual to give players a chance to interact with a find. Maybe it’s as simple as the find is humming, or it could be more dynamic like a sinkhole opens. You can even combine encounter tables and location tables to create a complex scene with a bunch of moving parts.

Sometimes I find my own stories bubbling up as I draft tables, and that can skew the results toward a single narrative. When this happens, I work backward. Starting with the complications or actions first and then developing the rest. The best sparks come from unlikely pairings and figuring out how those parts fit together. That’s where the real magic of a 3d6 table lives: in the tension between structure and surprise. Find the entire Autumn Adventures table for free in the Scrap Yarn Store here or add it to your library in Itch.io!