As a resource, this book is definitely 10 out of 10. This is a gold mine of inspiration and ideas. However, there are two things that prevent me from giving this masterpiece 5 stars: (1) The fonts are so small. I have no idea how the physical book would look like, but I read mostly in PDF. And wow. It's so hard to read even on a 1080 monitor. I can't imagine this being easy to read on phones and tablets either. (2) So much wasted space. Many of the pages have unused space. Leading me to think; if they made the fonts bigger, the page count would not change at all. The smaller font is definitely not to save ink because most of the pages have this horrendous black side panel. I have no idea why they made this great resource so hard to read.

The only reason I can tolerate them is because the actual content is just that good. I'm just so disappointed by how inconvenient it is to use. If you can tolerate the small font, it's definitely a must-buy.

Edit: Checked out for updates after 4 months release. They removed the secured PDF and improved the bookmarks! This makes it much better. I still don't like the small font and thick gutter. But the bookmarks are a great upgrade. Previously it was a secured PDF with terrible bookmarks. That meant I couldn't edit the bookmarks myself. But now they removed it, and improved the bookmarks! From 3 stars, I would give this 4 stars!

This a handbook for designing “adventures”, as the term is used in Dungeons and Dragons, namely, a map or story prepared by the gamemaster beforehand for the other players to explore and experience through their characters later. This book is not, as the author himself states at several points, a collection of random tables convenient for use at the table or for improvisation. Rather, he says, the random tables are meant to “shock the reader’s creativity into operation”, serving as fodder for creative rumination. To this end, many entries are open-ended or cryptic.

The tables are roughly organised in the order in which the author thinks it likely they will be used, beginning with locations, missions and villains, and then proceeding through monsters, dungeons, and the wilderness. The sheer number and variety of tables is staggering. Mercifully, the tables of contents (plural!) are all hyperlinked in the PDF. The layout leaves something to be desired, but everything is clear. The tables are interspersed with reflexions on creativity in general and adventure design in particular. The author has found a method that suits his purposes very well, and he shares it with the reader in an authoritative, even professorial, tone.

Now, none of this is quite what I expected when I purchased the book. I was hoping for a collection of interesting people, places, etc. that I could roll up and weave into my game. I was dismayed to see how few of the tables were suitable for this. For example, the locations table will not return evocative names like the Tower of the Dawn or Redjaw Pass, but rather enigmas like the Elliptical Stockades of the Many-Legged Daughter or the Wooden Mounds of the Zombie Star. As mentioned above, this is intentional because the author finds that these Delphic phrases drive his thinking in unexpected directions: me they just confuse. A wonderful exception is the chapter on monsters, which yields intriguing creatures and manifestations specific enough to tickle the imagination, and nebulous enough to work into any ruleset or story.

A second misconception I had before buying the book was that it would work equally well with games other than D&D: the blurb, after all, says that it “can be used with virtually any fantasy game”. This may be true of other games that require the gamemaster to plan the sessions out in detail ahead of time, but it is not true of the games I prefer, like Dungeon World. To make matters worse, the book refers in several places directly to rules (like saving throws) which are particular to D&D and its closest cousins. I believe even a gamemaster who plays D&D will find it difficult to make full use of this book if he has an improvisational style (à la Sly Flourish). This is a staggering oversight given the amount of thought and care that the author has obviously lavished on this project.

A final consideration is the writing, which may seem odd given how little continuous writing there is in this volume. The advice and commentary, however, are an integral part of the book, laying out the purpose and guiding the interpretation of each section. The author expresses himself clearly and sprinkles his work with often delightful allusions. As described above, he delivers his ideas in an authoritative and professorial tone, which is where the trouble comes in. Just as he seems to assume that all fantasy games are like conventional D&D, he assumes that everyone thinks exactly as he does. In the introduction, he asserts (in bold letters, if you like) that one cannot brainstorm in the way that I myself routinely do. The reader (or, at least, this reader) is left with the impression that the author’s confidence exceeds his knowledge, which is unfortunate given the many kernels of sound advice found throughout the book.

To conclude, then, I will certainly use several sections from this book (especially the monsters!, and also several other tables near the beginning and end). The author had a very clear purpose in compiling this volume, and seems to have succeeded: I just wish that I had understood it before buying, because it limits the usefulness of the book to me.

Honestly I was expecting a lot but this exceeded my expectations. This is fantastic. It goes into significant detail on building out lots of things key to adventure design. This book is pretty deep, when you start rolling it tends to lead you down the rabbit hole of more and more specialized and relevant tables until you have more than just a couple keywords that could fuel an idea but rather a full paragraph describing something specific. For example there is a table where you roll three times to customize an oasis. That's right, in the section of non-dungeon adventuring you might roll up a need for an oasis and then you customize it. Mine was a sacred oasis owned by a djinn and full of birds. Honestly I can use that, so much more useful than just an oasis.

But the best part of this book for me caught me by surprise, it's the section on monsters generation. 104 pages of tables for constructing monsters. You roll on monster body category, specifics, multiple times to combine them, special attack tables, defense tables, unique attributes, etc etc. Some of the monsters had a bit too much going on and needed to be paired down a bit but every time I built a monster using this book it comes out, with a little effort, as a unique and interesting thing to include in my game. I mean the undead section even has a "how they died" table!

If you generate anything randomly get this book and Worlds Without Number. You'll be golden.

Great product. It is of quality for getting ideas flowing.

Of note: if you want the print version of this book, the publisher has it on their website. That purchase comes with the pdf of this book, so if having a physical book to reference will be of use to you, you may wish to purchase it there.

Fabulous book, marred by the fact that the pdf pages do not match with the books page numbers making printing difficult.

This would be 5 stars if not for the bad bookmarks. I hope it gets updated at some point.

An embarrassment of riches from one of the best minds in the scene.

This is a great resource for anyone wanting to write their own materials or just to help finesse some published adventures. I stepped into the role of DM about 1 1/2 years ago and have been running a weekly game plus a couple one-shots per month. I've relied on other's materials for those but have found as I become more skilled and comfortable in my role that I want the freedom to move in my own directions; I just want to do it really well so my players are happy. This resource was recommended in a video on how to create a strong adventure so I came to check it out. It is worth every penny to me. So much so that I also purchased the book from their website and am anxiously awaiting it.
This isn't just a book of role tables but those are what I have already spent time diving into. I don't believe I could simply roll and an adventure would magically create itself but the inspiration and ideas really get your creativity flowing and the adventure/encounters almost feel like they are writing themselves. I created my first one-shot by using these roll tables and some advice from the book and my players had a blast!
This is a great resource and is easy to use. It isn't solely roll tables although those are many and vast. It also includes the basics you need to know about how to create an adventure including different types, varying the play to include all the pillars, motivations for your players to get involved etc. I'll be recommending this to anyone who runs the game!

I'd give this 4.5 if I could. It's a fantastic product with more inspiration than I could use in a lifetime, whether you are looking to flesh out something specific, or create and adventure or dungeon procedurally. For that it deserves a 5 star.

My small gripe is the sometimes inconsistent editing of the headings and how they are referenced in the table of contents. The sections that have the same level in a table of contents sometimes don't have the same header text size. And sometimes the section text in the table of contents does not match the header text on the page it references exactly.

Further to that, the bookmarks in the PDF are a huge mess. There are duplicate bookmarks, some out of order, and some nested when others that should the same heading level are not.

Navigating a tome of this size digitally would be far easier with consistent headings stylings, and digital bookmarking.

This is a fantastic resource for game masters. The random tables will help get you out of any recurring ruts or stories that you find yourself falling into while also leaving you plenty of room to flesh out the story and chase squirrels. This book will not write the whole adventure for you but it will give you interesting threads for your imagination to start weaving together something fun. When your players spill wine and chocolate all over your tapestry of awesome ... well, just roll with it.

As others note, this is a collection of tables that you can use to jumpstart your brain to write adventures. I participated in the Kickstarter and freely admit to being quite skeptical about it when it arrived but after giving it a read, I decided to give it a go and see how it works. Turns out it's a very clever collection of tables indeed and after a couple of weeks I have two complete adventures I am really pleased with, that no way I could have come up with myself. It's very useful and I am a convert. Just give it a good go. Interestingly the end adventures I completed aren't really the results I rolled up but gave enough guidance for me to work through my own ideas.

I really like this book and am happy to recommend. Glad I have the hardback though - it's a monster!

Nothing but collected random "plot" tables. Worthless. The writing is best described as pretentious. The book misses the "comprehensive" mark by a mile. Sadly, refunds aren't possible.

This book is a treasure. As you may have read in other reviews, it is a book of tables. that may sound unimpressive at first, but everything about this book is genius. It acts as a catalyst for your imagination in far too many ways for me to elaborate on here in this review. Whether you are designing a story, villains, plots, creating NPC's, towns, locales, monsters, and yes dungeons… The book breaks everything down into sections and you can work on whatever aspect of your adventure you want to focus on. I have had so much fun using this… That's something I haven't heard a lot of people say … It is so incredibly fun! For example, I have really enjoyed just sitting down on the front porch at night with a glass of wine and dice and using the monster section to randomly create bizarre, terrifying, and fantastical demons, beasts, and monsters that are unique and unlike any other creature I have seen in other RPG books! I then sketch out what they look like based on the framework the tables gave me to work with. Every section of the book gives you this kind of creative process, and aside from its practical nature, it is ridiculously fun. I backed the last kickstarter and can't wait for the hardcover to arrive.

Okay, this book is basically just a bunch of random tables to help you generate adventures, monsters, items, etc. for a fantasy setting. It's basically just a massive collection of Oracles (to use the Ironsworn lingo).

That being said, it's an incredible collection of oracles and just gets your brain turning. The biggest issue I have is that the tables are not hyperlinked in the document, so expect a lot of page-flipping. Though considering all the references between tables, it would probably just be web-app at that point...

Art is minimal but that's fine. Most tables have multiple columns and require multiple percentatile dice to roll. Every table just needs percentile dice, so you don't need to track multiple die types and can easily get away with a random number generator if you want. The whole thing is just crammed full of content.

I'd say this is highly recommended! But just be ready for the creative overload you will get as you go into this. I suggest that you start small and don't try to skim through the whole thing like I did the first time

I love this book so much I have two copies: the original and this new revised version. The random tables are as copious and useful as ever, and the new "apophenia engine" (where lists of random words and phrases fill the margins to jump-start your creativity) is a cool and unique feature. It's visually appealling if nothing else, and so far I have found additional inspiration in it enough times that I'm glad I have it.

With or without the apophenia engine, this is the kind of book that you will use again and again and again. And then again after that. There are tables for designing just about anything you'll ever need for your fantasy RPG game. I have a lot of other design/random table books, but this is the one I use most and the one I turn to first. If you only buy one book of RPG design material, this has got to be the one.