Random Tools for Game Night
For board gamers, game masters and anyone whose dice bag has gone missing. · 15 tools
Two different evenings are covered here. One is a board game where somebody has lost a die or you cannot agree who goes first. The other is a tabletop RPG session where a player talks to an NPC you had not planned and you need a name, a tavern and a reason for them to be there — in about four seconds. All of these are unofficial, system-neutral fan tools: they roll dice and generate flavour, and they reproduce no publisher's rules, tables or setting material.
Dice
A full polyhedral set, a plain d6 for board games, and the five-dice roller for Kniffel- and Yahtzee-style scoring games.
- Polyhedral Tabletop Dice RollerRoll a full set of tabletop polyhedral dice: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 and d100.
- D20 RollerRoll a twenty-sided die instantly — the classic tabletop RPG check die.
- Dice RollerRoll one or more standard six-sided dice online, with a clear accessible result.
- Five-Dice RollerRoll five dice with up to three rolls per turn and the ability to hold dice, suited to Kniffel- or Yahtzee-style play.
Who goes first, and what happens next
Turn order at the start of an encounter, and the roll mechanics that come up most often once it has begun.
- Initiative TrackerRoll initiative for every combatant and get an instant sorted turn order.
- Turn-Order GeneratorGenerate a full random turn order for every player in a game.
- First-Player PickerRandomly pick who goes first from a list of players.
- Advantage/Disadvantage RollerRoll two dice and automatically keep the higher (advantage) or lower (disadvantage) result.
Improvising a session
For the moment a player goes somewhere you had not prepared. Generate a name, give the place a sign over the door, and work out why anyone is there.
- Fantasy Name GeneratorGenerate invented fantasy names for tabletop RPG characters, NPCs or creative writing.
- Random NPC GeneratorGenerate a quick NPC with a name, trait, role and quirk for tabletop RPGs.
- Random Tavern Name GeneratorGenerate a fantasy tavern name for tabletop RPGs or fiction.
- Fantasy Quest GeneratorGenerate a quick quest hook with a twist for tabletop RPG sessions.
Filling out the world
Encounters and treasure when the session needs an interruption or the party has earned something.
Getting the most out of these
Worth agreeing before you start: an on-screen roll is harder for other players to verify than one on the table, so for anything contested, roll where everyone can see. None of these tools track state between rolls — no hit points, no rounds, no roll history — so a long encounter still needs paper or a virtual tabletop alongside them.
Other collections
- Random Tools for TeachersPickers, group-makers and lesson starters that work on a classroom projector.
- Random Tools for DevelopersIdentifiers, placeholder data and sample values for tests, fixtures and documentation.
- Random Tools for PartiesIcebreakers, party games and conversation starters for groups that have gone quiet.