Hey!
I was wondering about loot tables as a GM. You see, after randomly rolling on the tables I ended up with Equipment; I think it was a 7 in the gear subtable. As the GM, should I choose myself what equipment I give to the player or is there another table to roll on somewhere?
Some of the routes through the loot table end in a clear item (the glorious gift of lint, for example) while others just end in a small category of item. For the latter, the GM picks.
This lets the GM tailor the result to the encounter specifically and to the table in general, and to make the game’s challenges more fun: for example, the players leap on goblins without warning so the GM chooses gardening related equipment to raise doubt over whether they did ambush brutal raiders or actually murder a group of peaceful goblin farmers; or make it the kit that a character needs to use the skill they are trying to open, giving them the fun choice of whether they keep the supplies they currently need or try to carry out stuff that will be really useful later.
Equipment is result 8 on the Gear subtable. If you read the entry there, it says: Equipment. Roll 1d6: 1: iron spikes, 2: hammer, 3: pry bar, 4: chalk, 5: rope, 6: tinderbox
Hey Thor,
Sadly, I forgot to mentioned that I used one of the very first edition of the game and the old GM screen as well…