Assorted Items for Assorted Situations | 5e Random Tables

October 30, 2023
Posted by Luke Hart

By Dean Rigdon

These 5e random tables can be used to enhance your game by providing new and interesting items for your players to encounter. Feel free to customize these 5e random tables as desired to fit your and your players' playstyle.

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MacGuffins Galore

Are you looking for a way to spice up your plot-driving objects or shake up the campaign with a world-ending threat? This table contains powerful things that can shake the fabric of existence.

d10	Item w/ Description
1	*Bull Statuette* A miniature bull statuette depicts a romping black bull bucking an angel off its back. This statuette is the central instrument in the summoning ritual for a major demon with the horns of a bull.
2	*Ceramic Urn* The urn is simple and smooth. Inside, it contains the ashes of a once mighty warrior that will need to be brought back from the grave by powerful magic to help defeat the great evil that faces the world.
3	*Broken Crown* A golden crown is decorated with gems. On each tip of the crown, a gemstone is missing. Find each stone and unite them with the crown to restore power to the rightful leader of the realm.
4	*Torn Page* A powerful book has been stolen from the arcane library. Its sacrilegious text contains a horrible ritual to summon a dreadful beast. As the book was stolen, a single page fluttered loose from the binding of human skin. There is only so much time before they guess what the missing page says correctly. Find the book, or all is lost...
5	*Dagger of the Empress* The dagger is said to kill in one strike, severing the soul from the body. It’s renowned throughout the land and always entrusted to the empress of the time. Whether the story is true or not is up for debate but the current empress is cruel, however, and seeks to use the blade for evil and destruction. Remove the blade from play, and the empress's power will crumble.
6	*Skull of Neda* Neda, a vile creature arisen from the depths, was defeated many centuries ago. His body was mangled and torn apart while Neda lived on. His skull whispers to his followers, guiding them in bringing back the parts of his form and assembling them so he may live again! Find the parts before they can be assembled.
7	*The Colorful Candles of Doom* A vibrantly colored candelabra has candles that must be lit by a volcano at the four corners of the continent. If they are lit, the power of the volcanoes will be unleashed, knocking all the pillars of the continent out in one fell swoop.
8	*Lens of Truth* A glass lens grants its wearer knowledge none should possess, how to kill a god, for example, or the secrets of immortality. Its wearer would be a god among men. But for good or evil will this lens be used?
9	*Astrite* A new material, as strong as mithral and as hard as adamantine. It could be forged into an item so powerful it could rend existence itself. Attain this material before it can be used to exact this terrifying possibility.
10	*Granted!* An item of great power grants its owner one wish. This wish would be above all other wishes and above a mere spell. This wish would be a true wish, one without repercussions or loopholes. Or at least… that’s what the stories say. If they’re true, should this item fall into the hands of an enemy, the world would pay as a result.

Pantry Goods

Instead of saying that the kitchen contains rations, use this table to detail precisely what the kitchen includes.

d10	Item w/ Description	Cost
1	*Flour* Essential to any pantry, flour is a staple for making breaded foods. There may only be a small bag of flour in poorer houses, while richer folk tend to have an ample supply.	2 cp per pound
2	*Assorted Dried Herbs* Rosemary, thyme, and parsley. If they aren’t in the soup, then it isn’t a good soup! These herbs are put into absolutely everything they can be, including loaves of bread and pickling jars.	2 cp per ounce
3	*Salted Meat* A large slab of meat, perhaps from a deer, sits drying and salted on a rack. Meat such as this will sustain a family of seven or eight through long winters ahead.	3 sp per pound
4	*Pickled Vegetables* A jar of cucumbers, onions, and some purplish plants slowly pickling and preserving in the corner. Berries are also jar preserved, but this would be known as jam. Both pickled onions and raspberry jam are delicious on fresh baked bread.	1 sp per pound
5	*Loaf of Bread* The bread is still warm to the touch. A pat of butter and a slab of cheese with it is a good day's lunch for an honest farmer.	1 cp per loaf
6	*Nuts* Children foraged these nuts while they played in the woods. A cup of these nuts are rich in calories and proteins needed for toiling in the fields or hammering at a forge.	2 sp per pound
7	*Cup of Berries* This forgeable delight is less able to be preserved yet has a high sugar content that provides a rush of quick energy.	1 sp per pound
8	*Dried Mushrooms* Strung on a rack, these mushrooms are set out to dry for the approaching winter. A well-trained eye can see the fine range of varieties this pantry holds.	8 cp per pound
9	*Barrel of Beer* A barrel is filled with brewed beer, and even the children drink it. It keeps very well over long periods of time and will be a handy alternative to melting snow in a pot over the fire when the time comes.	1 gp per cask
10	*Bottle of Wine* A small cask of wine is more for adults and those of refined palates. Wine is more valuable, and this pantry is lucky to have some of such a fine vintage.	6 gp per cask

Fake Objects

Keeping a valuable item in your pocket for any street thief to steal isn’t a good idea. Instead, keep it in one of these mundane items that are more than they seem.

d10	Item w/ Description	Cost
1	*Devious Ring* Appearing as a mundane ring on the outside, the gem set onto the ring can be opened to reveal a small secret compartment perfect for storing a smaller precious gem.	45 gp
2	*Hinged Cane* A stout wooden cane has a brass handle on top. The handle is hinged and pops open to reveal its secret compartment.	5 gp
3	*Shoe Sole Flap* A sturdy pair of boots are fitted with buckles. When the buckle is undone, the sole of the shoe falls off, revealing a space just wide enough for a small object or message.	7 sp
4	*False Book* This leather-bound book contains nothing of interest on its pages. This is a perfectly mundane disguise. If its spine is peeled back, it reveals a spacious secret compartment.	18 gp
5	*Pull-Out Pommel* A dull dagger of shoddy make is hardly able to be used as a tool. All the better, since its handle is hollow, allowing the pommel to pull out from the blade and reveal a convenient hiding place.	3 gp
6	*Double Bottom Cup* A wooden cup is seasoned from extended use. The wood blends seamlessly together so that the upper half can be lifted up to reveal a watertight compartment inside the outer shell of the cup.	2 gp
7	*Twisting Copper* A coin like any other is made of copper. Barely worth stealing! However, the copper coin can be twisted to reveal a small space inside.	3 gp
8	*Candle Sheath* The candle looks normal but is really a small sized metal cylinder coated in a layer of wax. The cylinder separates into two finely fit pieces to reveal a spacious chamber inside the candle.	5 sp
9	*Hat Top* Even a child knows this trick, but no one suspects that the hat has a fake top outside of fooling friends. The top of the hat has a flap that folds back to reveal a secret cavity.	7 sp
10	*Cork in a Cork* A cork from a bottle is hollow and has another cork that plugs the hole that reveals this hollowness. Cork in a cork!	5 sp