A little bit ago, I made up a totally random DnD game. More random than my usual. I had a few encounters written down on paper, let whoever wanted to roll dice to help decide some things for me (even if they weren't playing), and went to town! Here's the weird game I made. Let me know if you use it! :)
I suggest doing the first three rolls a little bit before you plan on playing, so you can get the map ready! I personally allowed audience participation, so anyone who would like to roll, can. The server we play on allows for public listening on games, so I allow for audience participation to last into the game as well, it gives the players even less of a sense of control.
Roll d20 to choose how many zones.
Roll d20 to choose how many zones.
Roll d10 to choose the terran. 1 being very easy, 10 being very hard.
Ideas for terran differences: 1 being in a house, 5 being in a forest maze, 10 being in a leaky cave, abandoned in the very middle.
Roll d10 to choose the weather. 1 being very cold (icicles from your nose), 10 being very hot (lungs on fire!)
Roll d20 to choose the level of PCs! Feel free to roll this per character, or just have them all do the same level.
The only information that you should give your players beforehand is the fact that their characters will be waking up in a room. Feel free to give details about the room, but make sure it’s something that can apply to any environment that you’re willing to add to the terrain list. A jail cell probably won’t be randomly located in a cave, for example.
About 5-10 minutes (I had one of them roll a d2 to decide if it was 5 or 10 minutes, heh) before the game is due to start have your players go here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/builder#/
Have them click “Randomize”, and have them click the appropriate level as per the dice roll. I don’t advise allowing multiclassing or feats, but this is of course DM’s call.
Once they’ve rolled the character, click on “Equipment” and have them select their starting equipment (the randomizer doesn’t do this unfortunately!) and equip the weapons they choose. Allow them the rest of the chosen amount of minutes to get sort of attuned to the character sheet, and then it begins!
Your characters have all suffered a head injury (they all start with 2x their level HP missing!) and have no clue who they are. Their items are fine, they have not been robbed, and they only know their names if they pass an investigation check (DC 10) for ID in their bags. Otherwise, they are free to choose a nickname, based on their failed roll.
Have them click “Randomize”, and have them click the appropriate level as per the dice roll. I don’t advise allowing multiclassing or feats, but this is of course DM’s call.
Once they’ve rolled the character, click on “Equipment” and have them select their starting equipment (the randomizer doesn’t do this unfortunately!) and equip the weapons they choose. Allow them the rest of the chosen amount of minutes to get sort of attuned to the character sheet, and then it begins!
Your characters have all suffered a head injury (they all start with 2x their level HP missing!) and have no clue who they are. Their items are fine, they have not been robbed, and they only know their names if they pass an investigation check (DC 10) for ID in their bags. Otherwise, they are free to choose a nickname, based on their failed roll.
Then? Encounters! Have either the players or audience members roll for which encounters happen as your party ventures into new areas. Either have a preset list that corresponds to die rolls, or have rolls choose a type of encounter and then choose something based on those rolls.
Good luck!
Good luck!
Some encounters I had prepared:
1 - An empty room. No tricks, no monsters, no puzzles, just a door that is hidden. The lock is a button that’s able to be found on a successful (DC13) Investigation roll.
1 - An empty room. No tricks, no monsters, no puzzles, just a door that is hidden. The lock is a button that’s able to be found on a successful (DC13) Investigation roll.
2 - A room containing a 30x30x30ft pit, which contains a bunch of low level monsters. I chose wolves but feel free to choose something that means something to your group. Whatever it is, doesn’t ultimately matter though. Aside from the pit, there are 5 feet for moving around on either side of the pit, as well as a pole on the other side of the pit. The trick being, 2-3 feet down from the lip of the pit, is solid ground. As soon as anyone actually touches this true ground, the illusion of the monsters vanishes, and everyone can simply walk across.
3 - Statue of Comfort the Baker, a chubby tiefling with a love of food. She sits with her hands in her lap. A successful history check (DC15) lets PCs know that she loves food. Should a PC put any sort of food into one of her hands, or elsewhere on the statue (mouth, lap, top of her head), the door beside her will open. To make this be hard mode, allow only PCs who passed their investigation checks for their identity to roll for the history check!
4 - Random Mimic Room! Roll a d20, and then a d4-d10, depending how hard you want this to be. The first die represents how many pieces of furniture there are, with the second die representing how many pieces are actually mimics! Roll a d4 to decide how hard the room will be to navigate to avoid waking the mimics. (1 = easy, sleeping mimics in a large room, 4 = mimics on high alert in a tiny room!)
5 - ROYGBIV Puzzle. Hundreds of candles, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet! The easy part is figuring out the order to light the candles (or is it? I did it in backwards order of the rainbow!), the hard part is passing a survival check (DC10) to light the candles without knocking them over, or setting yourself on fire! Candles all go out, if your party mucks it up!
6 - An impossibly large four armed statue sits in front of the players, her arms blocking the doorway. A plaque, easily read by anyone that can read a random language of your choice (or someone that passes a DC10 history check can flub their way through reading something foreign to them) states “gives me sweet LIES or DIE”! In front of her, scattered all around the ground, are loose tiles, dozens of them, with the numbers 1-9 written on them. Once players write out 7135 (with or without the 7 upside down, to properly look like an L, your call on complexity) in her outstretched hands, the arms will move to let them free. ANY OTHER combinations result in a random (roll for it!) PC getting hit with 2d6 lightning, with a DC10 Dex save.
6 - An impossibly large four armed statue sits in front of the players, her arms blocking the doorway. A plaque, easily read by anyone that can read a random language of your choice (or someone that passes a DC10 history check can flub their way through reading something foreign to them) states “gives me sweet LIES or DIE”! In front of her, scattered all around the ground, are loose tiles, dozens of them, with the numbers 1-9 written on them. Once players write out 7135 (with or without the 7 upside down, to properly look like an L, your call on complexity) in her outstretched hands, the arms will move to let them free. ANY OTHER combinations result in a random (roll for it!) PC getting hit with 2d6 lightning, with a DC10 Dex save.
7 - A room that looks more nature than built, vines and flowers everywhere. There is a door on the other side of the room, but it is impossibly small. In the middle of the room lays a circle of mushrooms, a fairy ring! If anyone steps into the ring, they turn into a fairy and can fly, however they are the size of other players’ thumbs! If they leave and return to the fairy ring, they turn back to full sized (if easy mode. If hard mode, no changing back, and fairy PCs can’t be heard by other PCs while tiny!) … The door can be perfectly walked through if PCs are in fairy form, however, they automatically grow back to regular size once they go through all the way! (To make it easier, allow them to pass back and forth in fairy form.)
