Random Table PDFs and Books for Fantasy

Here we are looking at pdf and book titles for Fantasy RPGs on Drive Thru RPG.

Disclaimer: Rand Roll is an affiliate for DriveThru RPG and DM's Guild.

Starting Points

This fantasy guide covers parts applicable to all kinds of fantasy terrains and settings. We're specifically not looking at D&D, which has it's own guide. But most of these titles could be used in a Fantasy Setting.

There are separate Fantasy gen titles guides for...

Solo Fantasy PDFs
Fantasy Groups and Characters focusing on adventurers
Fantasy City
Fantasy Dungeons and Underground.
Fantasy Seas
Fantasy Wilderness
Fantasy Hinterlands (covering farms, roads and outside cities)
Fantasy Otherworldly (covering other planes and realms)
Dark Fantasy

Fantasy covers existing worlds such as Glorantha, Middle Earth and Westeros. Your own homebrews plus dungeon delves, hex crawls and fantasy soap opera. Using tools such as Pathfinder, D&D, Savage Worlds, OSR, Ironsworn, Warhammer or whatever takes your fantasy.

There is a Fantasy Tools guide for random tables and generators.

July 2025: New tiles; July 2024: New titles, added map section. Nov 2023: New titles and encounters section

Major Titles

Some PDFs are much larger and comprehensive.

The Tome of Adventure Design (revised) from Mythmere Games has over 500 pages of tables and guidance for various fantasy adventures. If you have the older version you don't need the updated one as it's mostly a formatting update. It has sister titles the Tome of World Building and The Nomicon.
From Dicegeeks there is the Great Book of Random Tables, combining 5 previous books of random tables. More focused is the Book of Random Tables: Quests.
GM's Miscellany: the Thingonomicon is from Raging Swan Press has pdf and book versions. It contains many lists grouped around 26 themes such as "Bustling Marketplace", "Looting the Body", "Smugglers' Lair" and "Wilderness Camping".
Spectacular Settlements from Nord Games has hundreds of pages for detailing and expanding settlements. Or using some pregenerated ones.
d20 Random Tables - Fantasy from Wilona's Cave Games has hundreds of pages of tables and is fairly priced. It has d20 tables covering characters, combat, dungeons, encounters, food, kingdoms and lots more.

Solo Titles

Solo RPGs have many Fantasy options. Enough that it has a Separate Solo Fantasy Guide. Some include...

The GamesMaster's Apprentice: Fantasy Deck from Larcenous Designs is an oracle and random generator in a deck of cards. With dice rolls, npc traits, event information, sights and sounds and other information.
Worlds Without Number from Sine Nomine Publishing is a full rpg, but also has a free edition and many random tables to detail your world.
Ironsworn from Shawn Tomkin is one of the best known solo games (and free! in pdf form), where the narrative is pushed forward by powerful vows made by the protagonist(s).
Five Leagues from the Borderlands from Mophidius is a solo miniatures game where your warband explores a fantasy world.
2d6 Dungeon from DR Games is a solo dungeon crawler with a straight-forward 2d6 system inspired by Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Nethack and other delving games.

World Building

Some GM's love worldbuilding in advance, and others let it develop through gameplay, or it fits and bursts. Related to the Maps section.

Shielddice Studio has Realm Fables: World Generator, a book of 80+ tables, including continents, cities, taverns, dungeons, items and npcs. There is also Realm Fables: World Generator Volume 2.
Castle Oldskull - Game World Generator (deluxe edition) from Kent David Kelly has tables and generators for maps, kindoms, terrain, cities, names and many other things for your fantasy campaign
47 Gods and Heroes for Your Campaign World from Blackstone Entertainment is a pay-what-you-want with options to fill out pantheons of gods. There's also 47 Holidays, Festivals and Special Events
From Tale of the Manticore, Pendulum: A World-building Assistant lets you create the history for a settlement, going from hamlet to large city
The Tome of World Building from Mythmere Games has over 350 pages of tables and guidance for building fantasy worlds. Sections for asking questions, continents, worlds, catastrophes, religions, cities, empires, forests, ruins, government, cultures, terrains, nations, deities and far more!

NPCs

NPCs are the allies, friends, rivals and foes of the characters, to be hated and loved.

Shielddice Studio has Swift: NPC Builder, full of many d66 tables to build and inspire memorable characters. They also have Realm Fables: Villain Generator.
Combining with the Taverns and Inns section is 100 NPCs You Might Meet At the Tavern from Azukail Games
Masks: 1000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game from Encoded Designs has 334 Non-player characters for fantasy!
For cards with npcs, Artemis Games has Concept Cards - Characters with 56 events and situations for adventure.

Taverns and Inns

Taverns and inns are a big part of fantasy, as places to relax or find new companions.

Tavern Tables - The Game Master's Tavern Builder Handbook from Lucky Dice Games has over a hundred pages of tables to created detailed inns and taverns.
100 Random Taverns from Azukail Games has brief text descriptions of 100 fantasy establishments. Related titles also include 100 Fantasy Foods and 100 Fantasy Drinks.
From Pink Dice Bag Publishing is the Fantasy Inn and Cuisine Generator with tables for menus, tavern names, rooms staff and features.
For your drinks Grinning Skull Studios has 100 Fantasy Beverages for all Fantasy RPGs.
For something to happen in the tavern, Atelier Clandestin has 60 Tavern Situations split over 6 locations.

Treasure and Items

Treasures are why some adventurers are out there, representing thing of value, curious trinkets and enchanted items.

For trinkets to give to characters and NPCs, Inkwell Ideas has Infinite Trinkets with a few d12 tables. For more items they also have Infinite Tomes, Coin Creator and Inifinte Gems & Jewelry.
The Gemerator from Tangent Games is a detailed look at 75 different types of gems.
For books Azukail Games has 100 Less Than Useful Books to Find on a Fantasy Bookshelf. And 50 Impractical Magic Items!
100 Oddities for a Treasure Hoard from Skirmisher Publishing helps round out loot with unusual finds.
From Blackstone Entertainment is pay-what-you-want 47 System-neutral Artifacts and Magical Items for Your Campaigns, with discussion of powers in system-neutral terms. There is also 47 Ancient Scrolls, Maps and Handouts to Spice up Your Game Night.

Encounters and Quests

Things that don't fit in the other categories.

For encounters in city, wilderness or dungeon Untold Encounters of the Random Kind from Loke BattleMats has many d100 tables covering hundreds of encounter entries.
For quick quests, Inkwell Ideas has Sidequest Decks: Monster Hunts, a deck of 70 sidequests around traditional fantasy monsters.
1d50 Tiered Encounters is from Atelier Clandestin, A Pay-What-You-Want with 50 encounters that each have different levels of danger. They also have 100 Adventure Hooks, 100 Noticeboard Hooks and 100 Side Quest Hooks.
For cards with hooks, Artemis Games has Concept Cards - Plot Hooks with 56 events and situations for adventure.

Maps

Related to World Building, these are titles with maps or creating maps

Atelier Clandestin has a Sandbox Generator with hex maps and tables for filling them with settlements, npcs, dungeons and other pieces of interest. 100 Campaign Hooks and 50 High Fantasy Random Events are also good for ideas.
For kingdom building using maps, Alexey Aparin has Pocket Lands: Kingdom, a deck of 68 minimap cards.
From Crimson Scholar Press, the Terrain Randomizer generates a tactical map for a fight scene
From Philip Reed Games is Hex Dek, Systemless Fantasy RPG Hexcrawl Cards with a deck of 50 double-sided cards, containing hexes, short description, extra info and random encounter table.

Other Titles

Things that don't fit in the other categories.

At 300 pages of tables for a dollar (last time I checked), the Fantasy Tome of Lists from JEN Games. It's tables are hit and miss. There is also a Fantasy Tome of Lists 2.
100 Riddles for Fantasy from Grinning Skull Studios
GM Gems from Goodman Games is System Neutral and contains 80 pages of d100 random tables split into three broad sections. These are The Urban Experience, Getting There is Half the Fun and The Dungeon
The Monster Overhaul from Skerples made for OSR monsters, a practical bestiary of advice and random tables (and monsters).
Although Knave 2e from Questing Beast Games is a fantasy RPG, it's packed with d100 tables for dungeons, wilderness, cities and characters.