Years ago, when I was running the Eastweald campaign, I expanded the 5e Player's Handbook's Wild Surge Table for sorcerers into a wider resource; the original table includes 50 effects, but I expanded it to cover 100 effects. I kept the original 50 effects, which are mostly oriented towards combat, and added in 50 more, which are generally more inclined towards roleplaying. You can find my expanded Chaos Table here.
Firstly, I want to acknowledge that there are many expanded Wild Surge Tables out there. Just a Google search of the phrase will turn up plenty of results. If you find another one that works well for you, go with it! The important thing is that the randomness fit with what you're trying to accomplish. If you want something that will spice up combat, most of these other options will work well for you. But if you're looking for a roleplaying option, I think mine works well. What I have linked to above is about 50% combat effects and 50% roleplaying effects. If you're looking for something that's 100% roleplaying effects, look no further than this roleplaying-specific variant. Literally every effect will be a challenge to your players to behave according to the strange rules contained in the table.
I used the table initially for Gerald's surges; we ruled that a natural 1 or a natural 20 meant a roll on the table. Currently, I use the same table for the chaos storms in the mystery campaign. With that use, I have the players roll Dexterity saving throws to avoid the chaos bolts, but a failure means rolling on the table. I really like this application because it mixes up the game and really embodies chaos when the storm rolls in. But there are many ways you could use random effects like these in your game. Read on for ideas on how to implement the Wild Surge Table in your games.
Because the Chaos Table is really about randomness, it suits the chaos storms well. But any campaign can use some chaos as a force in the story. For starters, if your game has a source of chaos--perhaps because you're dealing with the fae or because you're involved with a chaotic-aligned god--you can use it as you see fit. Imagine that the fae fight with chaos; when they strike a foe, you roll on the table. Or picture the god as trying to help the party with a bit of introduced chaos; the god litters the battlefield with chaotic effects. Of course any chaotic outlet is a good use for the table.
But you're not limited to applying it in ways that make obvious sense. Let's refer back to my list of campaign ideas and work out some uses for the table with those as well. The first idea is about a gnome who is trying to take over all of the highly regulated segments of the gnomish capital. Gnomes are very lawful creatures in my world, so introducing some chaos would really mix things up in an interesting way. Let's say then that the rebelling gnome has tapped into chaos magic and uses the effects to disrupt the gnomes he is about to take over. Now the table functions as a bit of cultural warfare for the orderly gnomes. The player characters would have to learn to deal with the chaos in order to save the population of the capital.
The third option on the idea list describes the appearance of goliaths on the shore of the campaign world; the goliaths are running from their "dangerous, unstable homeland." Perhaps the goliaths have retained some of the unstable energy of their homeland; now, the residual lingering effect of their home hangs over them, creating chaotic effects wherever they go. Seeking to help the goliaths settle in this world, the players must figure out how to reduce the effects of their chaos magic. A GM could insert a chaos effect at regular intervals, specific moments in the story, or whenever the goliaths take an important action.
Idea number four on the list describes a mysterious plague that affects the denizens of a particular city. The disease itself could be chaos-fueled. Rather than only making victims sick, you could rule that it both debilitates the victim and releases intermittent chaos effects, only making the disease harder to treat. Thus, as the players struggle to identify and fight back against the disease, they will also be fighting against the chaotic effects of the disease. It would become vital for the players to develop strategies to contend with the chaotic disease in addition to solving the mystery of its cure.
The tenth entry on the list of campaign ideas revolves around the appearance of wild animals in the sky above a town. This one practically begs for a chaos table use. The campaign idea itself deals with a chaotic effect, so expanding the effects of whatever is happening to the animals is natural. As the players deal with the persistent effect of the falling animals, they will also deal with the less predictable effects. This use of the table actually gives us some inspiration on how to write about the mysterious effect of the falling animals--it gestures towards a broader chaotic problem which will need to be investigated and worked against.
Campaign idea twelve begins with a fortuneteller foreseeing a player turning into a sheep before the player wakes up covered in wool. The campaign itself is concerned with finding the fortuneteller again for more information, but it is ripe with potential for further chaos. The effects begin in a harmless way like the sheep's wool; from there, you could transition into the gentler effects of the table and then later into the more severe effects, or you could simply roll for effects. You could potentially ramp up how often you roll on the table as the campaign progresses, always forcing your players to deal with ever-stranger events.
Idea sixteen describes a mysterious box that its owner won't talk about. You might spice up the mystery with the chaos table by depicting the box's owner carefully opening the box a crack; an effect from the table results from the box's being opened. The box's owner will not listen to reason and keeps opening the box occasionally; perhaps they are magically driven to open it. The box becomes more and more of a liability until it can be dealt with permanently, always driving the players to contend with its random effects.
The twenty-second campaign idea on the list involves the players recognizing that they have lost all their memories. Such a powerful magic effect suggests that other effects are afoot as well. You might structure this so that memory loss is one of the major effects of the spell that caused it, and the effects on the table represent lesser manifestations of its power. As the players investigate the cause for their memory loss, they will begin to piece together an image of chaotic magic causing issues all over the land; in order to protect innocents from the chaos, the party must resolve whatever has caused the leakage of magic energy.
The final item on the campaign list revolves around my custom magic system, glyphs. With glyphs, spellcasters are able to tailor custom spells using a language of magical symbols. The campaign calls for investigation of this new method of casting and facing off against a foe with considerable powers. But glyphs are fickle things and might leak chaotic energy. Every time your players cast a glyph spell, you must roll on the Wild Surge Table. As I note in the glyph introduction linked above, glyphs can be a little overpowered in some campaigns; having to introduce chaotic effects with each spell counterbalances the equation.
So there are eight different campaign idea applications of my Wild Surge Table. With each, you are able to incorporate more randomness into your games with creative effects that will complicate combat or enrich roleplaying. No matter how you use the table, remember that chaos is fun, but you can't run a campaign that's completely random. Things need to be predictable enough for the players to function; these chaotic effects are there to add storytelling moments to your campaign, not destabilize the campaign for your players. But used carefully, these tables can spice up just about any campaign.
That's all for now. Coming soon: how to keep a game balanced, my list of voices, and what to do when your players ignore your story. And, of course, if you have a suggestion for an article, comment below and I'll write about it. Until next time, happy gaming!
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