Random tables

Roleplaying games are a strange art.  Somewhere between strategy game and improv theater, they draw on an odd mix of skills.  And like improv theater, sometimes you just freeze up and can't think of what to do.

Two things have helped me with this: practice and random tables.

"Exploit your prep" is a rule in games like Dungeon World for a reason, but it only works if you've prepared something to exploit.  Invariably, the players end up trying something I hadn't planned for, and I need a new location/person/problem/whatever on the spot.  Sometimes improvising works well for me.  Sometimes it falls flat.

Writing (d4)
1-2	Write more stuff.
3	Edit and rework something you already wrote.
4	Throw it away, nobody wants to read it anyhow.

Making random tables beforehand gives me planned surprises.  I get to write the kind of thing I'd like, but still come up with something unexpected during the game.  The table sets the bounds, but the random rolls generate combinations I hadn't thought of.

Making random tables also forces me to have a clearer vision.  If I can't think up four different kinds of human weapons or goblin religious rituals, do I really know what they're like?  I've written up a bunch of random tables for Signs in the Wilderness, from escalating conflicts to flavors of cake.  Some have turned out more useful than others, but all of them have helped me get a better sense of the world they're set in.